FTA 9: 188 (1917).- Type: De Brazza & Thollon 46, Thollon 789, Congo (isosyn- K).
Andropogon brevifolium var. platyphyllus Franch., Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun 8: 324 (1895); Andropogon platyphyllus (Franch.) Pilg., in E.& P., Pflanzenfam., éd. 2, 14e: 166 (1940).
Regional litterature: FI. Gabon 5: 151, fig. 26: 1-4 (1962); FI. Nigeria: 105 (1970); FWTA: 478 (1972); Ghana grasses: 227(1977); FTEA : 755 (1982); Gram. Togo: 304 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 452 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 240 (1992); Poac. CI: 516, fig. (1995) ; Poac. Niger : 553, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 83 (2002); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 142 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 476 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 110 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 145 (2015).
Description:
* Straggling annual or perennial bunchgrass, erect, up to 1.2 m high or creeping and rooting at the lower nodes (Martins 1250, woody rhizomes). Culms almost woody, usually enclosed in leaf sheath and strongly compressed, 2-4 mm diam. Leaves emerging at right angles from the culm, short and broadly linear, 4-17 cm long and 3-10 mm wide, obtuse or abruptly acute tip and rounded base, flat towards the base but often folded at the apex; margins scabrid; ligule a narrow pale ciliated membrane; sheath strongly compressed and keeled, usually longer than the internodes. Roots a fine fibrous mat.
* Inflorescence compound, scanty and loose, 20-30 cm long, composed of terminal and axillary racemes, subtended by a spatheole and embraced at base by subtending leaf. Spatheoles linear. Racemes single, cylindrical, 1-4 cm long; rhachis fragile; internodes clavate, tip cupuliform; sessile spikelets squeezed between internode and pedicel. Pedicels clavate, glabrous.
* Sessile spikelet lanceolate, laterally compressed, 3-5 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume lanceolate, coriaceous, keeled, glabrous; upper glume lanceolate, membranous, 1-keeled, acuminate. Lemmas oblong, hyaline; upper lemma incised 0.9 of length with geniculate awn of 8-12 mm long; column glabrous. Pedicelled spikelet rudimentary, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 1 mm long. Glumes chartaceous, with 2-4 mm long awn.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Uganda and E and southern Africa.