Kew Bull. 1934: 428 (1934).- Type: Peter 38380, Burundi (holo- B, K fragment).
Trichopteryx phragmitoides Peter in Fedde Rep., Beih. 40: 1, Anh.: 96 (1930);
Loudetia flammida of Lisowski, Flore (Angiospermes) de la République de Guinée: 464 (2009).
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 18 (1937); Fl. Gabon 5: 259 (1960FWTA: 417 (1972); Ghana grasses: 181 (1977); Gram. Togo: 247 (1983); FTEA: 415 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 372, fig. 80 (1992); Poac. CI: 236, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 286, fig (1995); Fl. Bénin: 216 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 169 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 464 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 95 (2012); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Coarse densely tufted reed-like perennial of 2-3.5 m tall. Culms erect, stout woody with nodes bearded in broad bands of white hairs, sometimes extended downwards into a rhizomatous base. Leaves narrow to fairly broad linear, 50-100 cm long and 10-20 mm wide, glabrous to densely hairy with sharply scabrid margins; base narrowed and passing directly into sheath; sheath glabrous to densely hairy, the basal ones tending to accumulate into dense fibrous masses; ligule a short membrane fringed with dense white hairs. Roots stout and coarse.
* Inflorescence a large oblong contracted panicle of 20-60 cm long, with numerous branches; pedicels with long straight hairs on the tip, bearing juvenile spikelets at emergence. Spikelets sometimes in loose clusters of three.
* Spikelets linear, 6-7 mm long, pubescent, golden brown; callus 0.5 mm long, glabrous and truncate. Glumes glabrous or setose with tubercle-based hairs, chartaceous; dark brown; lower glume ovate, 3-4 mm long. Lower glume apex obtuse or acute; upper glume lanceolate, 6-7 mm long. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate 6-7 mm long, acute; upper lemma elliptic, 3-4 mm long, coriaceous, villous with hairs 1-2 mm long, 2 -fid with triangular lobes, acute with geniculate awn with twisted column, 1-2 cm long from the sinus. Anthers 2.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda and C, E and southern Africa.