FTA 9: 264 (1919).- Type: McGregor 248, Nigeria (holo- K, iso- US).
Andropogon gabonensis auct. non Stapf: CE. Hubbard, FWTA, éd. 1,2: 587(1936).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 488 (1972); Ghana grasses: 95 (1977); Gram. Togo: 144 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 439 (1992); Poac. CI: 570, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 181 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 449 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 69 (2012).
Description:
* Large perennial bunchgrass of 2.5-4 m tall. Culms robust, 6-12 mm diameter, cane-like and occasionally prop-rooted. Leaves rough, linear, attenuate, 40-75 cm long and 2-5 cm wide; basal leaves with long false petiole; ligule a large ciliolate membrane of 2-4 mm long; sheath glabrous, basal ones strongly compressed and inter-leaved.
* Inflorescence compound lax spathate panicle of 0.6-1.2 m long; many flowering branches from the upper culms with terminal and axillary paired racemes, subtended by spatheoles. Spatheole lanceolate, 6-10 cm long, scarious or herbaceous. Racemes green to purplish, 4-8 cm long; rhachis fragile, glabrous or pubescent on surface and ciliate on margins, hairs 2 mm long; internodes and pedicels clavate, 2.5-4 mm long, ciliate; tip bi-lobed.
* Sessile spikelets oblong, 5-7 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume oblong, chartaceous, laterally keeled, surface flat with 4-5 intercarinal nerves and with a longitudinal median groove sometimes with a line of hairs; keels fringed with short white hairs; upper glume boat-shaped, membranous, puberulous, margins ciliate, muticous. Lower and upper lemma oblong, hyaline, the upper one incised and from the sinus a geniculate awn of 9-16 mm long; column twisted, glabrous. Pedicelled spikelets oblong, 4-5 mm long; glumes chartaceous, mucronate with an awn up to 3 mm long.