Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland 80: 62 (1969).- Type: Bladh s.n., China (holo- LD).
Andropogon bladhii Retz., Obs. Bot. 2: 27 (1781);
Andropogon intermedius R.Br., Prodr. 202 (1810);
Andropogon glaber Roxb. Fl. Indica 1:2 (1820);
Amphilophis intermedia (R.Br.) Stapf, FTA 9: 174(1917);
Bothriochloa glabra (Roxb.) Stapf, FTA 9: 172 (1917);
Bothriochloa intermedia (R. Br.) A. Camus, Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon76: 164 (1931);
Dichantium bladhii (Retz.) Clayton, Kew Bull. 32: 3 (1977).
Regional litterature: Fl. Nigeria: 88 (1970): FWTA: 470 (1972); RI: 107, fig. 12 (1977); FTEA: 719 (1982); Zon, Gram. Cameroun: 413, fig. 91 (1992) ; Poilecot, Poac. CI: 492, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 306, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 305 (1998); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 45, fig (2002); Fl. Bénin: 186 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 72 (2012) ; Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 120 (2015).
Description: Tufted perennial of 0.5-1 m high, often stoloniferous and shrubby. Culms slender, glabrous, branched, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves linear lanceolate, strongly aromatic when crushed, smelling and tasting like turpentine, 8-40 cm long and 2-10 mm broad, flat, glabrous and glaucous with smooth to slightly scabrid margins; base rounded, the whole drying pinkish with a white midrib, tapering to a fine point; ligule a 0.5 mm long membrane with short white hairs; sheaths glabrous and lightly compressed, barbate at the base. Roots coarse, aromatic.
* Inflorescence an oblong panicle with a central axe of 4-20 (1-7) cm and numerous slender branches 2-5 cm long. Racemes pale green to purplish of 2-6.5 cm long, simple or occasionally divided, arranged fairly densely around the short central axis. Internodes and pedicels fragile, linear, cannulate and hyaline in the groove; internodes and pedicels hairy with hairs up to 2.5 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets elliptical, 3-4 mm long, pubescent; callus short, rounded and barbate. Lower glume membranous, conspicuously pitted with a single tiny hole like a pin-prick at 1/3 from the tip with 3 nerves at both sides, pilose below the middle; upper glume boat-shaped, acute and keeled towards the tip. Sometimes the hole on the lower glume hardly visible (Zon 5933a) or not all spikelets pitted. Upper lemma epaleate, linear, hyaline with short geniculate hair-like awns of 10-20 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet smaller, 3-4 mm long, glabrous, with stiff white hairs of up to 2 mm at the base.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia and Uganda, and E and southern Africa, Ethiopia, Asia and Australia; introduced in the Americas.