FTA 9: 408 (1919).- Type: Pobeguin 521, Guinée (holo- K; iso- P).
Andropogon androphilus Stapf, Journ. de Bot. 19: 103 (1905);
Heteropogon androphilus (Stapf) Roberty, Boissiera 9: 142(1960).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 91 (1970); FWTA: 498 (1972); Ghana grasses: 145, fig. 34 (1977); Gram. Togo: 208 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 500, fig. 108 (1992); Poac. CI: 616, fig. (1985); Fl. Bénin: 203 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 458 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 84 (2012)
Description:
* Coarse tufted perennial of 1.0-2.5 m high. Culms erect, terete or somewhat compressed, yellow, 2-5 mm diam. Leaves long narrow linear, 30-60 cm long, 5-9 mm wide, sometimes narrowing into a false petiole, flat or partially folded at the base, glabrous with a conspicuous white-hyaline midrib and scabrid margins; ligule a short pale brown membrane of 1-2 mm long; sheath glabrous with hairy shoulders. Roots coarse, well developed and uniformly black, stripping white.
* Inflorescence an open ovate false panicle with numerous branches from upper culms, 20-60 cm long composed of terminal and axillary racemes, subtended by a spatheole. Spatheole linear, 5-10 cm long, bearing short spathate racemes. Racemes paired, 2-3.5 cm long with 1 fertile spikelet on each; rhachis fragile, internodes filiform, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Raceme-bases filiform, unequal, the upper 15-25 mm long, glabrous. Pedicels filiform, ciliate.
* Sessile spikelets elliptic, 7-10 mm long; callus linear, 2-3 mm long, pungent, bearded with white hairs. Lower glume elliptic, chartaceous, dark brown, pubescent; upper glume lanceolate, chartaceous, pilose with an awn 0-3 mm long. Lower lemma oblong, hyaline; upper lemma linear, 5 mm long, hyaline with a bigeniculate awn from the sinus of 5-9 cm long with twisted pubescent dark column. Pedicelled spikelets well-developed, sterile or male, lanceolate, olive green, 7-11 mm long; callus oblong, 1-1.5 mm long, truncate; glumes chartaceous, glabrous, acuminate.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC, Angola.