Beskr. Guin. Pl. 49 (1827).- Type: Thonning e.a., Guinée.
Andropogon spectabilis K. Schum., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 328 (1897).- Type: Afzelius sn, Sierra Leone (syn- S); Baumann 467, Togo (iso- K);
Andropogon tenuiculmis Reznik, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, sér 2,5:495 (1933).
Regional litterature: FTA 9:257 (1917); FWTA: 488 (1972); Ghana grasses: 97 (1977); Gram. Togo: 148 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 438 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 438, fig. 96 (1992) ; Poac. CI: 552, fig. (1995) ; Pl. Mauritanie: 309 (1998); Poac. Niger : 577, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 182 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 133 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 450 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 69 (2012) ; Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Stout erect perennial bunchgrass, 2-4 m high. Culms stout, up to 8 mm diam., often prop rooted from one or several lower nodes. Leaves thin, flag-like, fluttering constantly about the midrib, long lanceolate, 30-50 cm long and 10-40 mm wide, flaccid, light green, glabrous or often finely velvety hairy, finely nerved with conspicuous white midrib and up to 11 secondary nerves on each side, margins scabrous and a long false petiole of more than 5 cm long; ligule a rounded brownish ciliate membrane of 2 mm long; sheath glaucous, usually glabrous.
* Inflorescence large and compound spathate, 60-90 cm with numerous flowering branches bearing spathate panicles of fairly short pale-green, paniculate, lax, composed of terminal and axillary paired racemes, subtended by a spatheole. Spatheoles lanceolate, 4-6 cm long. Racemes 3-4 cm long, densely hairy; rhachis fragile, ciliate on margins, hairs 2-3 mm long; internodes and pedicels linear, 3 mm long, silvery ciliate.
* Sessile spikelets oblong, 4-5 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose with hairs 1-2.5 mm long. Lower glume oblong, membranous, keeled laterally with a longitudinal median groove and distinct nerves; upper glume lanceolate, muticous. Lower lemma oblong, 3 mm long, hyaline; upper lemma linear, 3 mm long, hyaline, 2-fid with from the sinus a geniculate awn of 15-25 mm long with a dark twisted glabrous column. Pedicelled spikelets oblong, 4-5 mm long, chartaceous; glumes with a 0.5-1.5 mm long awn.