Suppl. Fl. Ceylon 334 (1931).- Type : Bladh, Chine (holo- ?C).
Rottboellia sanguinea Retz., Obs Bot. 3: 25 (1783);
Andropogon hirtiflorus (Nees) Kunth, Révis. Gram. 2: 569 (1832);
Schizachyrium semiberbe Nees, Agrost. Bras. 336 (1829);
Andropogon semiberbis (Nées) Kunth, Rév. Gram. 1: 489 (1833);
Andropogon leptostachys Benth, in Hook, Niger Fl.: 571 (1849).- Type: Vogel, Nigeria (holo- K);
Schizachyrium griseum Stapf, FTA 9: 194 (1919).- Type: Pogebuin 1774, Guinea (holo- K).
Regional description: FTA 9: 195 (1917); Fl. Gabon 5: 158 (1962); FWTA: 479 (1972); Ghana grasses (1977); FTEA: 756, fig (1982); Gram. Togo: 307 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 458 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 241 (1992); Poac. CI: 526, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 319, fig (1995); Poac. Niger : 557, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 32 (2002); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 142 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 476 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 111 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 145 (2015).
Description:
* Coarse reddish-purple erect perennial bunchgrass, up to 3 m. Culms robust, sometimes compressed towards the base. Leaves linear, 6-30 cm long and 7-10 mm broad, often ending in an acute, abruptly keeled canoe-like tip, flat or folded, glabrous to densely hairy, margins smooth to scabrid; base sometimes coarsely hairy and barely rounded; ligule a small ciliolate membrane; sheaths glabrous to densely hairy, basal ones compressed and overlapping. Roots coarse, robust, pale.
* Inflorescence compound, fastigiated, with racemes often excerted on the upper culms branching profusely. Spatheole linear, 4-7 cm long. Racemes single, slender narrowly spatheolate, 2-15(- 20) cm long; rhachis fragile, hairs 1 mm long; internodes cuneate, 5-7 mm long; tip crater form. Spikelets squeezed between internode and pedicel. Pedicels cuneate, 3-5 mm long, glabrous to villous.
* Spikelets glabrous to densely hairy. Sessile spikelet linear, laterally compressed, 5-10 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume coriaceous, keeled over almost the whole length, the tip slightly curved; upper lemma bifid for ¾, with fine inconspicuous hair-like awn, 8-15 mm. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 3-5 mm, acuminate or with an awn of up to 3 mm.
Note: In eastern Africa and Asia the spikelets are mostly glabrous but in western Africa and America they are often pubescent to villous.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda and E and southern Africa, Ethiopia, Asia and Americas.