FTA: 351 (1919).- Type: Chevalier 2359, Mali (holo- P, iso- K)
Cymbopogon cyanescens Stapf, J. de Bot. 2,2: 209 (1909);
Andropogon cyanescens (Stapf) A. Chev., Sudania 1: 35 (1911);
Andropogon hirtus Linn. clava. Pobég.- Type: Pobeguin 514, Guinea (holo- P).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 494 (1972); RI: 158 (1977); Gram. Cameroun: 487, fig. 106 (1992); Poac. CI: 600, fig. (1995); Poaceae Niger : 608, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 210 (2006) ; Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 461 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Coarse robust perennial bunchgrass, erect or from a short rhizome, up to 3 m high. Culms stout, terete or slightly compressed, often woody; lower nodes often prop-rooted. Leaves long linear, flat, glabrous, 15-50 cm long and 3-8 mm wide, glaucous, with the midrib prominently, margins sharply scabrid and rolling outwards on drying; base narrow, sometimes hairy; ligule a brown truncate membrane of 2-3 mm long; sheath glabrous but hairy on the shoulders. Roots coarse, robust.
* Inflorescence a large compound panicle with numerous flowering branches from the upper culm with paired racemes. Spatheoles linear-lanceolate, 3.5-5 cm long, commonly rolled around the peduncle at maturity, glabrous, glaucous-grey to purple; peduncles 1-5 tcm long, usually ½ to as long as the spatheole, pilose with white hairs at the tip. Racemes deflexed at maturity, 1.7-2.5 cm long, with 6-11 awns; rhachis fragile at the nodes, ciliate on margins with white hairs, internodes linear, 2.5-4 mm long, tip oblique, flat; raceme-bases flattened, the upper up to 2.5 mm and the lower 1 mm long, stiffly setose. One pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the lower raceme and none in upper raceme (sometimes 1, Koechlin 2677)
* Sessile fertile spikelets 4.5-6 mm long; callus oblong to cuneate, 0.5-1.2 mm long, pubescent, base obtuse. Glumes dissimilar, coriaceous; lower glume lanceolate, grey, glabrous to pubescent. Lower lemma lanceolate; upper lemma linear, awned from the sinus; awn geniculate, 2.5-4 cm long light brown, with column twisted, puberulous, or pubescent with 0.2-0.4 mm long hairs. Homogamous and pedicelled spikelets glabrous, ciliate on margins, lanceolate, 6-8 mm long with an awn of 1-2 (- 5) mm.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC.