FTA 9: 190 (1917).- Type: Kersting 260, Togo (holo- ?W).
Andropogon urceolatus Hack., Flora 68: 115 (1885).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 479 (1972); Ghana grasses: 230 (1977); Gram. Togo: 308 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 456, fig. 100 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 241, fig. (1992); Poac. CI: 522, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 319, fig (1995); Poac. Niger : 555, fig. (1999); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 142 (2008); Pl. Burkina Faso: 111 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 145 (2015).
Description:
* Erect annual bunchgrass of 15-30 cm high. Culms slender, yellow. Leaves narrow-linear, 2-6 cm long and 2-3 mm broad, flat to partially folded, glabrous with slightly scabrid margins; the base barely rounded passing straight into the sheath; ligule a short ciliated membrane; sheath glabrous, slightly compressed. Roots a fine fibrous mat.
* Inflorescence compound, composed of single terminal and axillary racemes subtended by a spatheole. Racemes stout cylindrical glabrous, terete 3-5 cm, partially excerted from the conspicuous green to pink spatheoles; rhachis fragile, 2 mm wide, glabrous; internodes oblong, 6 mm long, tip crater form. Spikelets in pairs; the sessile squeezed between internode and pedicel. Sessile spikelets at one side and the pedicelled spikelets at the other side of the racemes. Spatheoles lanceolate, 2.5-4 cm, reddish at maturity. Internodes and pedicels clavate, glabrous, 3-4 mm long.
* Sessile spikelet linear, 5-6 mm long, markedly pink, glabrous; callus obtuse, pubescent. Lower glume chartaceous, keeled, winged at the tip, glabrous; apex 2-awned, awns 1-2 mm long; upper glume lanceolate; membranous. Lemmas oblong, hyaline; apex of upper lemma incised for 0.6-0.75 of lemma length with geniculate awn of 14-18 mm long, column twisted, glabrous. Pedicelled spikelets 2-3 mm, well-developed, comprising of two sub equal membranous glumes, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 3-4 mm long; one glume with 1-2 mm long awn.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia.