FTA 9 : 360 (1919).- Type: Humboldt in Herb. Willd. 18655, Venezuela (holo- B).
Andropogon bracteata Willd., Sp. Pl. 4 : 914 (1814);
Andropogon setifer Pilg., Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr. Afr. Exped. Bot.: 44 (1910);
Andropogon nlemfuensis Vanderyst, Bull. Agric. Congo Belge 9: 242 (1918);
Cymbopogon pilosovaginatus De Wild., Bull. Jard. Bot. Brux. 6: 17 (1919);
Hyparrhenia contracta Robyns, Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 189 (1929).
Regional litterature: Fl. Nigeria: 95 (1970); FWTA : 494 (1972) ; FTEA : 814 (1982); Gram. Togo: 230 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 490 (1992) ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 132 (2015).
Description:
* Densely tufted perennial of 0.6 -2.5 m high. Culms glabrous or sometimes villous below the nodes; basal sheaths usually tomentose. Leaves stiff, up to 60 cm long and 4 mm broad, pubescent to whitish villous; ligule membranous, truncate, 1-2 mm long; sheaths sparsely hirsute, sometimes villous or glabrous.
* Inflorescence a narrow dense spathate panicle of 20-60 cm long; the primary tiers with 3-4 compound rays, these bearing secondary and tertiary rays, with paired racemes. Spatheoles 2-3 cm long, commonly appressed hirute, sometimes only hairy along the margins; peduncles a little shorter, copiously bearded with stiff yellow or white hairs near the tip. Racemes 5-15 mm long, dark purple, deflexed; 2-4 awned per pair, laterally excerted; bases slightly unequal, densely hairy with hairs up to7 mm long, upper 1.5-2 mm long, bearded with stiff yellow hairs; appendage narrowly oblong, irregularly bifid or lobed, 1-2.5 mm long. One pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the lower raceme only.
* Sessile spikelets narrowly linear-oblong, purplish, 4-6 mm long, glabrous; callus acute, 1 mm long. Lower glume coriaceous, glabrous, the middle nerve raised between two fine grooves. Awn 1-2.5 cm long. Caryopsis 2 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets 4-6 mm long, glabrous, muticous or with a short mucro seldom over 1 mm long; pedicel tooth obtusely triangular, obscure. Homogamous spikelets 4-7 mm long, glabrous with scabrid margins.
Note: Quite some variation in the inflorescence.
Distribution West Africa: Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Burundi, E and southern Africa, Asia, Latin America.