FTA 9: 204 (1919).- Type: Baumann 361, Togo (iso- K).
Andropogon rupestris K. Schum. in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 24: 327 (1897);
Andropogon compressum Stapf: FTA 9: 201 (1919).- Type: Chevalier 435, Mali (holo- K);
Andropogon compressus var. pleiocladus Stapf, Journ. De Bot., sér. 2,2: 204 (1909).- Type: Chevalier 2348, Senegal (holo- K);
Schizachyrium pratorum C.E. Hubbard, Kew Bull. 4: 373 (1949).- Type: Deighton 4187, Sierra Leone (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 481 (1972); Ghana grasses: 229 (1977); FTEA: 758 (1982); Gram. Togo: 306 (1983); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 468 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 241, fig. (1992); Fl. Bénin: (1992); Poac. CI : 536, fig. (1995); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 142 (2008); Pl. Burkina Faso: 111 (2012).
Description:
* Erect perennial bunchgrass up to 1.2 m high with harsh tufts. Culms somewhat compressed towards the base. Leaves long linear, 15-30 cm long, 1-7 mm wide, rigid, shortly acute, often keeled or canoe-shaped tip, flat to folded and keeled, glabrous and scabrid with midrib recessed, margins sharply scabrid; base passing directly into sheath; ligule short toothed ciliolate membranous rim; sheath glabrous to hairy, compressed, especially the basal ones and keeled. Roots coarse and distinctly black.
* Inflorescence compound, scanty, composed of terminal and axillary racemes, subtended by a linear spatheole. Racemes single, silver-hairy, 3-5 cm long; rhachis fragile, villous on the margins with hairs of 3-4 mm long; internodes linear or clavate with crateriform tip, 3.5 mm long. Spikelets appressed, in pairs. Pedicels linear or clavate, villous, 3.5 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets elliptic, dorsally compressed, 4-6 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume elliptic, chartaceous, 2- keeled, glabrous; upper glume lanceolate, membranous. Lower lemma oblong, hyaline; upper lemma oblong, hyaline, incised 0.25-0.33 of length with geniculate awn 10-16 mm long, column glabrous twisted of 3.5-7 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets well-developed, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 3-6.5 mm long; glumes chartaceous, glabrous, acuminate; lower glume with 1-2 mm long awn.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon.
Distribution world-wide: Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa.