FTA 9: 387 (1919).- Type: Type: Drège s.n., Omsamcubo, South Africa (iso- S, K,P, L, BM)
Andropogon ceresiiformis Nees, Fl. Afr. Austr. 109 (1841);
Andropogon ceresiiformis var. submuticus Hack., Monogr. Phan. 6: 399 (1889).- Type: Schweinfurth 2191, Sudan (iso- K);
Andropogon ceresiiformis var. brevisaristatus Hack., Monogr. Phan. 6: 399 (1889).- Type: Schweinfurth 2261, Sudan (iso- K);
Monocymbium nimbanum Jacq.-Fel., Rev. Bot. Appl. 30: 176 (1950).- Type: Jacques-Félix 1930, Guinea (iso- K)
Regional litterature: Fl. Nigeria: 102, fig. 51b (1970); FWTA: 499 (1972); Ghana grasses: 187, fig. 60 (1977); FTEA : 825 (1982); Gram. Togo: 255 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 504, fig. 109 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 220 (1992); Poac. CI: 622, fig. (1985); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 331, fig (1995); Poaceae Niger : 6, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 143, fig (1999); Fl. Guinée: 466 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 97 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 137 (2015)
Description:
* Loosely tufted perennial of up to 0.9-1.2 m high. Culms weak and tending to lodge in heavy rains; lower sheaths brown, woolly hairy. Leaves linear, glabrous to densely hairy with a fine midrib and scabrid margins; base passing straight into the sheath; ligule short reddish membrane; sheath glabrous to densely hairy. Roots fine dense fibrous mat.
* Inflorescence an open false linear panicle of up to 50 cm long with slender axes of up to 20 cm and solitary racemes. Racemes solitary, 10-15 mm long, each enclosed in a distinctive red-brown papery finely-pointed boat-shaped spatheole of 2-4 cm long. Internodes and pedicels linear, ciliate. Spikelets in pairs.
* Sessile spikelet elliptic, 3-4 mm long, straw-colored; callus broad with hairy margins. Lower glume oblong-elliptic, softly pilose to villous; upper glume with an awn 2-6 mm long. Upper lemma with an awn 6-20 mm long and dark at the base. Pedicelled spikelets similar but awnless and a callus of 0.5-1 mm long.