in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 77: 281 (1957).- Type: Bauman 353, Togo (holo- B).
Trichopteryx ambiens K. Schum. in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 24: 335 (1897);
Loudetia ambiens (K. Schum.) CE. Hubbard, Kew Bull. 1934: 431 (1934);
Trichopteryx ternata Stapf, J. Bot. (Morot) 19: 106 (1905).- Type: Pobeguin 510, Guinea, Karoussa (holo- K);
Loudetiopsis ternata (Stapf) Hubbard, Kew Bull. 1934: 431 (1934).
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 43, 44 (1937); FWTA: 415 (1972); Ghana grasses: 182 (1977); Gram. Togo: 248, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 383, fig. 84 (1992Poac. CI: 230, fig. (1995) ; ); Fl. Bénin: 217, fig. (2006); Fl. Guinée: 465 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 96 (2012).
Description:
* Coarse simple erect perennial bunchgrass up to 2 m; basal sheaths often splitting into dense fibrous mass round the base of the culm. Culms simple, erect, stout and cane-like with dark nodes. Leaves long, tough, linear, 30-60 cm long and 4-8 mm wide, flat or slightly folded, slightly scabrid on broad surfaces, margins sharply scabrid; base narrow, densely hairy, entering directly into the sheath; ligule a fringe of short white hairs, sometimes repeated on the abaxial side as a false ligule; sheaths glabrous, often with hairy shoulders contiguous with the false ligule. Roots robust.
* Inflorescence a long, dense and sometimes spreading golden-brown panicle of 25-30 cm long and 2.5-11 cm wide with numerous appressed or ascending scabrid branches bearing many spikelets in groups of three. Pedicels sub equal, 1-2 mm long, setose.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 6-8 mm long; callus 0.5 mm long, bearded, truncate. Glumes chartaceous, dark brown; lower glume ovate, 3.5-5 mm long, obtuse to sub acute, surface setose with yellow hairs; lower glume apex obtuse or acute, setose with yellow tubercle based hairs; upper glume lanceolate, 6-8 mm long, glabrous, truncate. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, 6-8 mm long, obtuse or acute; upper lemma oblong, 3.5-5 mm long, coriaceous, pubescent, lobed with a geniculate awn of 20-25 mm long from the sinus.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon.