Syst. Veg. 2: 836 (1817).- Type: India.
Andropogon contortus Linn., Sp. Pl. 1045 (1753).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 411 (1919); FI. Nigeria: 93, fig. (1970); FWTA: 473 (1972); Ghana grasses: 158, fig. 43 (1977); FTEA: 827 (1982); Gram. Togo: 227, fig. (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 408, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 508 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 356, fig (1995); Poac. CI: 506, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 306 (1998); Poac. Niger : 538, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 146, fig (1999); Fl. Bénin: 208, fig.(2006) ; Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 132 (2015).
Description:
* Erect perennial bunchgrass, 0.3-1.2 m tall with fine branches. Culms yellow. Leaves linear, 3-30 cm long and 2-8 mm wide, the tips of the basal leaves bluntly acute to obtuse, the upper ones with a fine long point, flat to partially folded, glabrous to sparsely hairy, rather papery in texture, with scabrid margins; ligule a fringe membrane with hairs of 1 mm long; basal sheath compressed and keeled and glabrous to sparsely hairy.
* Inflorescence from the upper culms with slender solitary terminal racemes. Racemes fragile, 3-10 cm long, persistant at the level of the homogamous spikelets; internodes linear; 3-15 pairs of homogamous spikelets at the base, the upper spikelets with coarse awns, at maturity twisted together into an erect spiral, and tangling into a dense knot.
* Sessile spikelets linear subterete, 6-10 mm long; callus linear, pungent, 2-3 mm long, bearded with hairs red. Glumes linear, coriaceous, dark brown, puberulous to pilose, obtuse. Upper lemma linear, 3-5 mm long, membranous with geniculate awn of 5-12 cm long with twisted hirtellous column. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, asymmetrical, 5-15 mm long; glumes chartaceous, winged, glabrous to villous, acute. Homogamous spikelets similar to the pedicelled ones.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Algeria, Morocco, Tunesia, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and C, NE, E and southern Africa, southern Europe, Asia, Americas.