Fund. Agrost. 188 (1820).- Type: Retzius sn, Indonesia (holo- LD).
Andropogon aciculatus Retz., Obs. Bot. 5: 22 (1789).
Regional litterature: Fl. Gabon 5: 150 (1962); Fl. Nigeria: 88 (1970); FWTA: 468 (1972); Ghana grasses: 123, fig. 21 (1977); Gram. Togo: 177, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 412, fig. 91 (1992); Poac. CI: 486, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 192 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 76 (2012).
Description:
* Perennial with creeping culms, rooting at the nodes, forming dense swards; internodes of the stolons short, with imbricated sheaths. Culms slender but strong, ascending, up to 30-50 cm. Leaves lanceolate, glabrous, with wiry margins, on the stolons 3-10 cm long and 4-6 mm wide, on the culms 10-20 cm long and 2-4 mm wide; ligule a short ciliate rim of 0.2 mm; sheath glabrous but tip and margins ciliate. Roots fine.
* Inflorescence a panicle of 5-8 cm long with linear branches pressed to the main axe and tipped by raceme branches. Racemes up to 3 mm consisting of a triad of spikelets at the end of the peduncle with one sessile and two pedicelled spikelets. Pedicel 2-3 mm.
* Sessile spikelets purple, elliptic, laterally compressed, 6-9 mm long; callus linear, 3-5 mm long, pubescent, sharp and can penetrate painful in the skin. Lower glume oblong, 3-4 mm long, cartilaginous; upper glume lanceolate, apex attenuate. Lower lemmas lanceolate, hyaline; upper lemma oblong, hyaline, apex entire with an apical, straight awn, 4-6 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets male, lanceolate, 4-5 mm long; glumes chartaceous, acute.
Distribution West Africa: Introduced in Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Asia, Australia and the Pacific.