FTA 9: 194 (1917).- Type: Barter 371, Nigeria, Kogi (type- W,K).
Andropogon nodulosus Hack., Flora 68: 116 (1885).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 479 (1972); Ghana grasses: 227 (1977); Gram. Togo: 304 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 456, fig. 100 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 240, fig. (1992); Poac. CI: 524, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger : 556, fig. (1999); Pl. Burkina Faso: 110 (2012).
Description:
* Multi-stemmed erect annual bunchgrass, 0.1-0.5 m high. Culms slender. Leaves narrowly linear, 3-8 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, often folded but the older basal ones usually flat on drying, margins scabrid; base sparsely hairy, passing directly into the sheath; ligule a barely visible short toothed white membrane; sheath glabrous, compressed. Roots a fine fibrous mat.
* Inflorescence compound, composed of terminal and axillary racemes, subtended by a spatheole. Spatheole lanceolate, 2.5-3 cm long, red. Racemes single, cylindrical, 2.5-5 cm long; rhachis fragile, 1.5-2 mm wide, pubescent on margins; internodes oblong, 4-5 mm long with crater form tip. Spikelets in pairs, the sessile squeezed between internode and pedicel. Pedicels linear, pubescent.
* Sessile spikelet linear, dorsally compressed, 5-7 mm long, densely hairy, pink to silver; callus bearded, obtuse with hairs 1.5-2 mm long. Lower glume linear, chartaceous, glabrous, bi-dentate; upper glume lanceolate, membranous, mucronate. Lower lemma oblong, 2 mm long; upper lemma ovate, hyaline, incised 0.6-0.75 of length with from a sinus an awn of 10-12 mm long, glabrous. Pedicelled spikelet well-developed, comprising of two subequal glumes, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 3 mm long with an awn 1-2 mm long.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.