FTA 9: 314 (1919).- Type: Mann 1342, 2079, Cameroon (syn- K).
Andropogon smithianus Hook.f.., J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 7: 232 (1864);
Sorghum smithianum (Hook. f.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 792 (1891).
Regional litterature: Fl. Nigeria: 98 (1970); FWTA: 491 (1972); RI: 165 (1977); Gram. Cameroun: 472, fig. 104 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 211 (2006) ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 92 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Coarse erect short-lived perennial with culms up to 1-2.5 m; dense dark pads of purplish red hairs on bases of stems and their enveloping sheaths, often persistent in the soil surface after death of the plant; base sometimes thickened. Culms 2-5 mm diam. Leaves 20-75 cm long and 2-6 mm wide, stiff; margins scabrous; ligule a brown eciliate membrane of 2-3 mm long.
* Inflorescence a spathate panicle of 30-90 cm long; spatheole linear or lanceolate, 3.5-7 cm long, red; peduncle nodding, pilose above with paired panicles. Racemes erect, 2.5-3 cm long, with 8-14 awns per pair; rachis fragile, hairs white or yellow; internodes linear, flat. Raceme-bases filiform, unequal, the longer 2-3 mm long, glabrous or pubescent with rufous hairs. One pair of homogamous at the basis of the lower raceme, none in upper raceme.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 4.5-6 mm long; callus cuneate, 0.4-0.8(- 1) mm long, pubescent, base truncate or obtuse, hairs white or yellow. Lower glume purple, not shiny, with golden hairs. Upper lemma with a geniculate awn, 20-35 mm long with twisted column, fulvously pubescent with 0.2 mm long hairs. Pedicelled and homogamous spikelets lanceolate, 5-6 mm long.
CLE DES VARIETES
1. Perennial 0.4-1 m high, 2-3 mm diameter at the base; basal parts with a indumentum of purplish-red hairs but these often scanty and pallid; racemes not or imperfectly deflexed with a dense indumentums of dark rufous or chocolate coloured hairs.var. smithiana
1'.Perennial 1.5-2.5 m high, 4-6 mm diameter at the base; basal parts with a indumentum of dark red to blackish hairs;; spikelets with a dense indumentums of golden rufous coloured hairs. var. major
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC.