J. Linn. Soc. 19 : 71 (1881).- Type: Habersham, USA (iso- K).
Andropogon melanocarpus Ell., Sketch. Bot. S. Carol. 1 : 146 (1816).
Regional litterature: FTA 9 : 413 (1919); Fl. agrost. Congo belge 1: 214 (1929); FWTA : 473 (1972); FTEA : 827 (1982); Gram. Cam.: 506, fig. 110 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 356, fig (1995); Poac. Niger : 537, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 145, fig (1999); Fl. Guinée: 461 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 132 (2015).
Description:
* Erect annual bunchgrass, up to 2 m tall. Culms robust, ascending, with prop-roots, 6-8 mm diameter at the base. Leaves up to 50 cm long and 5-12 mm wide; ligule a membrane of 1.5-2.5 mm long with hairs; sheath slightly compressed with a line of glands, stiff hairy and keeled towards the ligule.
* Inflorescence a dense panicle, up to 35 cm long. Racemes from the middle of the spatheole, 3-5 cm long. Spatheoles linear, up to 12 cm long with glands. 1-3 pairs of homogamous spikelets at the base of the raceme and 4-6 heterogamous pairs of spikelets.
* Sessile spikelets narrow lanceolate, 9-11 mm long including the callus of 3-5 mm callus with red-brown barbs. Lower glume hispid. Lemma with a geniculate, pubescent awn of 7-13 cm long. Pedicelled spikelets 15-25 mm long. Lower glume herbaceous, glabrous, multi-nerved with a line of depressed glands in the middle. Homogamous spikelets similar to the pedicelled spikelets.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia, and E and southern Africa, Madagascar, India and the Americas.