FTA 9: 397 (1919).- Type: Afzelius sn, Sierra Leone (type- BM); Scott Elliott 4108, Sierra Leone (para- K)
Andropogon afzelianus Rendle, J. Bot. 31: 357 (1893);
Andropogon arrectus Stapf, Chev. Bot. 716 (1905).- Type: Pobéguin 560, Guinea (isosyn- K);
Anadelphia arrecta (Stapf) Stapf, FTA 9: 396 (1919);
Pobeguinea arrecta (Stapf) Jacques-Félix, Rev. Bot. Appliq. 30: 173 (1950);
Pobeguinea afzeliana (Rendle) Jacques-Félix, Rev. Bot. Appliq. 30:174 (1950).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 83 (1970); FI. Gabon 5:194-196(1962); FWTA: 501 (1972); Ghana grasses: 89, fig. 4 (1977): Gram. Togo: 133 (193); Fl. Senegal 10: 40, fig 22 (1991, unpubl.); Gram. Cameroun: 502, fig. 109 (1992); Poac. Niger : 625, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 177 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 133 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 447 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 67 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013)
Description:
* Perennial of 1-2 m high, in tufts of up to 5 cm diameter, well-branched, light green, glabrous to rather hairy, often fibrous at the base with cataphylls. Culms erect, 1.5-4 mm diameter, the base slightly thickened. Leaves linear, 10-60 cm long, 2-5 mm broad, with a fine point, often softly hairy and scabrid, margins scabrid, base passing straight into sheath; ligule a sometimes ciliolate membrane of 1 mm long; sheath hairy.
* Inflorescence a compound, spathate panicle, 25-70 cm long, lax, with branches bearing terminal and axillary ruddy tinged racemes enclosed by a spatheole. Spatheoles green tinged with yellow or brown, linear, 2-3.5 cm long. Peduncle pubescent above. Racemes solitary, 1.5-2 cm long, with 2 sessile and 3 pedicelled spikelets; rhachis and internodes filiform, ciliate on margins, 2-4 mm long. Pedicels filiform, ciliate, 4 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 5-8 mm long; callus pungent, linear, 1.5-2.5 mm long, pilose with white hairs. Lower glume oblong, coriaceous, light to dark brown, obtuse and keeled towards the apex; upper glume oblong, margins ciliate with a wiry awn of 8-15 mm long. Lower lemma oblong, hyaline; upper lemma linear, hyaline, 3-6 mm long with a lobed apex, incised 0.3-0.5 of lemma length and a geniculate brown awn of 25-40 mm long from the sinus; column twisted, glabrous. Pedicelled spikelets well-developed, linear to lanceolate, 6-9 mm long; glumes glabrous, coriaceous, acuminate with an awn of 0-2 mm long.