Ess. Agrostogr.: 132 (1812).- Type : Swartz s.n., Jamaica (holo- S).
Andropogon fastigiatus Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ.: 26 (1788);
Cymbachne fastigiata (Sw.) Roberty, Boissiera 9: 255 (1960).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 85 (1970); FTA 9:207 (1919); FWTA: 485 (1972); Ghana grasses: 93 (1977); FTEA : 778 (1982); Fl. Senegal 10: 61, fig. 35, 36 (1991, unpubl.); Gram. Cameroun: 433 (1992); FTEA: 777 (1982); Gram. Togo: 138 (193); Poac. CI: 546, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 325, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 308 (1998); Poaceae Niger: 576, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 179 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 449 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 68 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 118 (2015).
Description:
* Slender annual of 0.5-1.8 m high, single stemmed or tufted. Culms erect, yellowish, 1-5 mm diameter, glabrous. Leaves narrowly linear, 5-30 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, with a false petiole; 1igule a pink, eciliate membrane 5-12(-30) mm long and clasping the culm; sheath glabrous, keeled towards apex, narrowing into the false petiole.
* Inflorescence a compound fastigiated panicle, 30-45 cm long, composed of terminal and axillary single racemes, subtended by a conspicuous papery spatheole of 6-8 cm long, tardily and partly excerting laterally or terminally from the spatheole. Racemes 3-5.5 cm long; rhachis fragile, long-ciliate on margins; internodes and pedicels clavate, ciliate with hairs of up to 5 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets linear, 4-5 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume linear, coriaceous, keeled dorsally and surface deeply depressed, glabrous; upper glume linear, chartaceous with an awn 1-2 cm long. Lower lemma oblong, hyaline; upper lemma oblong, hyaline; apex dentate with a geniculate awn from the sinus 3-5 cm long; column twisted, glabrous. Pedicelled spikelets elliptic or oblong, purple, hairy, papery, 5-9 mm long; glumes membranous, glabrous, acute, lower glume elliptic, with 4-8 mm long awnupper glume lanceolate, hyaline, mucronée with an awn of 3 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania, southern Africa, Asia, Latin America.