Kirkia 5: 249 (1966).- Type: Thorold 285, Ghana, Damongo (holo- K).
Loudetia thoroldii C.E. Hubb. in Kew Bull. 12: 62 (1957).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 416 (1972); Ghana grasses: 184 (1977); Gram. Togo: 252 (983); Fl. Bénin: 218 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 97 (2012).
Description:
* Coarse erect perennial bunchgrass, densely clumped, up to 2.2 m tall. Culms stout, more than 5 mm diameter a the base, coarse and scabrid below the panicle. Leaves long linear flat or rolled inwards, 40-80 cm long and 6 mm wide, glabrous or finely nerved with a slightly rough surface and scabrid margins; base hairy narrowed passing straight into the sheath; ligule an inconspicuous fringe of short white hairs; sheath short hairy, the base of the lower ones often splitting into a mass of accumulated fibers. Roots robust, coarse.
* Inflorescence an open oblong golden-brown panicle of 30-40 cm long and 6-25 cm wide. Branches spreading, often conspicuously whorled, at the base 10-13 cm long and bearing numerous triads of spikelets at their end on short peduncles of 1-3 cm long; pedicels 1-1.5 mm long.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 5-7.5 mm long, sparsely covered with stiff hairs on black tubercles of 2-2.5 mm long; callus truncate, 0.3 mm long, bearded. Glumes chartaceous, dark brown, hairy on veins with tubercle-based hairs; lower glume ovate, 3 mm long; upper glume 7-7.5 mm long. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate, 5-7.5 mm long; upper lemma oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm long, coriaceous, pubescent, 2 -fid with geniculate awn from a sinus of 1.5-2.5 cm long.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Benin