Rev. Gen. Pl. 794 (1891).- Type: Thunberg s.n., HB. Linn. 94-11, South Africa (holo- LINN).
Stipa spicata Linn.f., Suppl. 111 (1781);
Trachypogon plumosus (Willd.) Nees, Fl. Bras. Enum. Pl. 2: 344 (1829);
Andropogon plumosus Hunb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Sp. Pl. 4: 918 (1806);
Trachypogon thollonii (Franch.) Stapf, FTA 9: 402 (1919).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 403 (1919); FWTA: 473 (1972); Ghana grasses: 251, fig. 93 (1977); FTEA: 709 (1982); Gram. Togo: 330 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 399, fig. 88 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 248 (1992); Poac. CI: 504, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 297, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 19 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 150 (2015).
Description:
* Simple erect densely tufted wiry perennial bunchgrass of 0.3-2 m high and a fibrous base. Culms simple, slender and yellow, the nodes densely bearded with fine white ascending hairs of 1-2 mm. Leaves narrowly linear, 15-40 cm long and 1-7 mm broad, flat but often rolled, glabrous or sparsely hairy, with a pale midrib, scabrid margins; base densely white-hairy, narrowed into almost a false petiole; ligule a long pointed membrane; sheath densely white-hairy. Roots coarse stout and rather sparse.
* Inflorescence terminal, excerted usually with one but up to 5 subdigitate racemes. Racemes silver-pink, flexible, 4-25 cm long; internodes and pedicels linear. Rhachis persisting like a herringbone after spikelets are shed. Pedicelled spikelets fertile, sessile spikelets appressed to the central axis, male or sterile.
* Pedicelled spikelets fertile, sub-cylindrical, greyish green, 7-8 mm long , softly hairy with stiffly pointed callus with white hairs. Glumes similar; the lower coriaceous, with a rounded back, 2-keeled towards the tip. Upper lemma hyaline, chartaceous towards the tip, extended into an awn bent below the middle, twisted and 4-8 cm long. Sessile spikelets awnless, without a callus.
Distribution West Africa: Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda and C, E and southern Africa, Americas.