FTA 9: 368 (1919).- Type: Dalziel 901, Nigeria (lecto- K).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 99 (1970); FWTA: 496 (1972); Ghana grasses: (1977); Gram. Togo: 234 (1983); FTEA: 818 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 494 (1992); Poac. CI: 608, fig. (1995) ); Poac. Niger : 611, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca : 131 (2002) ; Fl. Bénin: 211 (2006) ; Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 462 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 92 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 134 (2015).
Description:
* Robust perennial bunchgrass, up to 2-3 m. Culm pale yellow, roots dense, stout and well developed. Leaves long linear, 20-60 cm long and 3-10 mm wide, flat to slightly folded, glaucous with a broad slightly recessed white midrib, usually densely hairy on both surfaces, with sharply scabrid margins tending to roll outwards; base narrowed, barely rounded, often extremely hairy with a white collar; ligulea narrow white membrane of 2-3 mm long; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence loosely paniculate, 20-50 cm long, with short paired spathate racemes. Spatheole 3-7 cm long. Racemes usually sharply reflexed1.5-2.5 cm long, with 4-6 (3 -7) awns per pair; peduncle 1-3.5 cm; rachis fragile, ciliate; raceme-bases flattened, sub equal, 1.5-2 mm long, pubescent; two pairs of homogamous spikelets on both the lower and upper raceme, forming an involucre.
* Sessile spikelet lanceolate, 6.5-7.5 mm long; callus cuneate, 1.5 mm long, pubescent, acute. Lower glumelanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous or pubescent; upper glume linear. Upper lemma with a geniculate awn from a sinus of, 4-6.5 cm long with twisted hirsute column with 0.5-1.3 (- 1.7) mm long hairs. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 7-8 mm long with a 2-7 mm long awn; homogamous spikelets 8-10 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, C and southern Africa, Tanzania.