Bot. Jahrb. 54: 284 (1917).- Type: Kotschy 90, 370, Sudan (isosyn- K, L).
Andropogon exile Hochst., Flora 27: 241 (1844).
Schizachyrium glabrescens (Rendle) Stapf, FTA 9: 192 (1917).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 191 (1917); FWTA: 479 (1972); Ghana grasses: 226 (1977); FTEA: 756 (1982); Gram. Togo: 304 (1983); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 468 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 459, fig. (1992); Fl. Bénin: 240 (1992) ; Poac. CI: 528, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 319, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie : 307 (1998) ; Poac. Niger: 558, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 85 (2002); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 142 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 475 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 110 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 144 (2015)
Description:
* Erect annual bunchgrass, 0.1-1.2 m high. Culms pinkish, with occasional prop-roots from the lower nodes. Leaves narrowly linear, flat to partially folded, 2-15 cm long and 1-4 mm broad, glabrous, with an inconspicuous midrib; margins slightly scabrid, base slightly rounded and partially hairy; ligule a short truncate ciliolate membrane; sheath glabrous, the basal ones strongly compressed and keeled towards the apex. Roots a fine whitish mat.
* Inflorescence compound, bearing many slender terminal and axillary racemes, partially but persistently enclosed in the conspicuous green red-tipped spatheoles. Spatheoles drying eventually rusty-red and 3.5-4.5 cm long and 2-4 mm wide. Racemes cylindrical, silver-hairy, 3-6 cm long; rhachis with fragile clavate internodes of 4 mm long, usually villous with hairs of 2-3 mm long. Sessile spikelets fertile, squeezed between internode and pedicel; pedicelled spikelets sterile. Pedicels cuneate, villous with 1-3 mm long hairs.
* Sessile spikelet linear, laterally compressed, 5-7 mm long; callus obtuse and pilose. Lower glume lanceolate, strongly convex with inflexed sides, keeled near the tip. Lemmas hyaline; upper lemma bifid for ¾ with a fine kinked hair-like awn 10-25 mm long, pale above and dark below. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 2 mm long with an awn of 3-10 mm.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia and Eritrea, E and southern Africa, Asia.