Kew Bull. 1934: 429 (1934).- Type: Schweinfurt 2007, Sudan, Seriba Ghattas (holo- K, syn- P,E).
Trichopteryx annua Stapf, Kew Bull. 1897: 295 (1897);
Trichopteryx thorbecki Pilg., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 51: 415 (1914).- Type: Letouzey 6066, Cameroon, Mbangbere (neo- P);
Loudetia annua (Stapf) Hubb. var. thorbeckii (Pilg.) Jacq.-Fél., Adansonia sér. 2, 12: 234 (1972) ;
Loudetia annua var. dronnei Jacq.-Fél., Adansonia n.s., 12: 235 (1972).- Type: Clair 19, CAR, Zémio-Rafai (holo- P).
Regional litterature: FTA 10:40 (1937); FWTA: 417 (1972); Ghana grasses: 178 (1977); FTEA: 421 (1982); Fl. Bénin: 215 (2006); Poac. CI: 238, fig. (1995); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 169 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 464 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 95 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Erect cespitose annual, 0.6-1 m high. Culms soft and straw like, the nodes bearded with stiff white hairs. Leaves narrow linear, expanded and flat, 4- 20 cm long and 2-7 mm wide with hairy surface and margins; base slightly narrowed, barely rounded; ligule a short line of hairs; sheath glabrous with hairy margins. Roots a fine fibrous mass.
* Inflorescence an open elliptic panicle, 10-30 cm long and 2-5 cm wide; branches ascending, with pedicelled spikelets.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 15-20 mm long, light brown, hirsute; callus 1 mm long, pubescent, 2-toothed. Glumes chartaceous, brown, setose with tubercle-based hairs; lower glume ovate, 5-7 mm long, tip 3 -fid; upper glume lanceolate, tip obtuse and caudate. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate, 7-10 mm long, acute; upper lemma oblong, 3-5 mm long, coriaceous, pubescent, tip 2-fid with triangular lobes and a geniculate awn with a fine puberulous twisted black column of 9-14 cm long from the sinus.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Uganda.