Kew Bull. 20: 441 (1966).- Type: Herb. Lindley s.n., tropical Africa (probably Ghana) (holo- CGE).
Anthistiria dissoluta Nees ex Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 400 (1854);
Andropogon ruprechtii Hack., Flora 68: 126 (1885);
Hyparrhenia ruprechtii (Hack.) Fourn., Mex. PI. Gram. 67 (1886);
Hyparrhenia dissoluta (Nees ex Steud.) C.E. Hubb., FWTA 2: 591 (1936);
Hyperthelia macrolepis (Hackel) Clayton, Kew Bull. 20: 447 (1966).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 326 (1917); FWTA: 496 (1972); Ghana grasses: 165, fig. 46 (1977); FTEA: 786, fig. (1982); Gram. Togo: 234 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 460, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 497, fig. 107 (1992); Poac. CI: 610, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 333, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 310 (1998); Poac. Niger : 619, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 136, fig (1999); Fl. Bénin: 212, fig. (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 462 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 93 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 135 (2015).
Description:
* Robust erect perennial bunchgrass of 1-3 m high. Culms harsh, smooth, pinkish to yellow, shining. Leaves long narrow linear, 15-40 cm long and 3-6 mm wide, flat, glaucous and glabrous, pale whitish midrib, margins scabrid; base narrowed, passing straight into the sheaths; ligule a thin membrane of 3 mm long; sheath hairy.
* Inflorescence a well branched stiff fastigiated panicle of up to 60 cm long with short paired spatheolate racemes; spatheole large and green, lanceolate, 5-7 cm long, glabrous or hirsute; peduncle 3-5 mm long, glabrous or pilose above. Racemes never reflexed, 2-3 cm long with two straight awns per racemes-pair; rachis fragile at the nodes, ciliate on margins; bases filiform, unequal, the longer 2-3 mm long, glabrous, with 4-11 mm long appendage. One pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the lower raceme and none in upper raceme.
* Sessile spikelets linear, subterete, 10-14 mm long; callus cuneate, 3-6 mm long, pilose, pungent with white hairs. Lower glume oblong, coriaceous, much thinner above, yellow, with a longitudinal median groove, setaceous; upper glume oblong, coriaceous. Lower lemma oblong, ciliate on margins; upper lemma with a geniculate awn of 5-11 cm long with twisted hirtellous column from the sinus. Pedicelled and homogamous spikelets lanceolate, 9-14 mm long, as long as fertile with a cuneate callus of 0.3-0.8 mm long; glumes coriaceous with an up to 2 mm long awn.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda; C, E and southern Africa, introduced in C America.