Mant. Pl. Alt. 2: 183 (1771).- Type: Koenig sn, India (holo- LINN).
Description:
* Coarse rhizomatous branched perennial bunchgrass, sometimes geniculate but usually with erect culms, up to 4 m. Culms bamboo-like, well branched when geniculate. Leaves long linear, 1 m long and 1 cm wide, conspicuous white midrib, glabrous with scabrid margins; base sparsely hairy, passing directly into sheath; ligule a large crescent ciliated brown membrane; sheath glabrous, sparsely hairy towards the apex. Roots coarse.
* Inflorescence an open, large, dense fluffy silver-white panicle, 20-45 cm long, the densely hairy branches rising in bunches from nodes on the hairy central axis. Racemes 3-15 cm long; rachis very fragile at the nodes, subterete, pilose on surface; internodes filiform. Spikelets in pairs. Pedicels filiform, ciliate.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 3.5-7 mm long; callus bearded, truncate with white hairs 2-3 as long as spikelet. Lower glume lanceolate, acuminate, coriaceous, 2-keeled, flat; margins ciliate. Lower glume apex. Lower lemma lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, hyaline, palea absent; upper lemma hyaline, linear, 1-2 mm long, sometimes suppressed. Anthers 3, yellow; stigmates rouge. Caryopse oblong.
Note: Polymorphic species, in many forms, being commonly grouped into two sspp.
Key to the subspecies
1. Leaves narrowed to the midrib towards its base; ligule triangular. ssp. spontaneum
1'.Leaves laminate to the base; ligule crescent-shape. ssp. aegyptium
ssp spontaneum
Regional litterature: Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 293, fig (1995); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 143 (2015)
Description:
* Leaves with a narrowed almost petiolate base; ligule triangular.
Distribution West Africa: Chad, Sudan.
Vern. & Uses: Wild sugarcane.
ssp. aegyptiacum (Willd.) Hack.
in DC. Monogr. Phan. 6: 115 (1889)- Type: Schwartz in Hb. Linn. 1493, Egypt (holo B)
Saccharum aegyptium Willd., Enum. Hort. Berol. 1: 82 (1809);
Saccharum punctatum Schumach., Beskr. Gram. Pl.: 46 (1827).- Type: Thonning, Ghana (holo- C);
Saccharum spontaneum var. aegyptium (Willd.) Hack., Monogr. Phan. 6: 115 (1889).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 95 (1917); FWTA: 466, fig. 448 (1972); Ghana grasses: 222, fig. 79 (1977) ;FTEA: 4, fig. (1982); Gram. Togo: 298 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 393, fig. 87 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 293, fig (1995); Poac. Niger : 506, fig. (1999); Pl. Burkina Faso: 108 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 143 (2015)
Distribution West Africa: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, DRC, and NE and E Africa, Malawi, W Asia.