in Hamilt., Prodr. Fl. Ind. Occ. 12 (1825).- Type: Desvaux s.n., Antilles (holo- ?P).
Rhytachne mannii Stapf, FTA 9: 85 (1917).- Type: Mann 1886, Eq. Guinea (holo- K);
Rhytachne rottboellioides var. guineensis Camus & Schnell, Rev. Gén. Bot. 57 (1950).- Type: Schnell 3435, Guinea (iso- P).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 83 (1917)); Fl. Agr. Congo Belge 1: 71 (1929); Fl. Gabon 5: 137 (1962); FWTA: 511 (1972); Ghana grasses: 220 (1977); FTEA: 843 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 526, fig. 116 (1992); Poac. CI: 672, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger : 657, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 170, fig (1999); Fl. Bénin: 235 (1992); Fl. Guinée: 474 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 107 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 143 (2015).
Description:
* Densely tufted, simple, wiry perennial of 0.2-1.0 m high; butt sheaths present. Culms slender. Leaves narrowly linear, 5-25 cm long and 0.5-1 mm wide, tightly rolled and filiform, glabrous with smooth margins; base passing straight into the sheath; ligule a distinct tiny membrane with small ears at the base; sheath glabrous, the lower ones purplish or white and slightly compressed. Roots forming a well developed coarse mass, filling rock crevices.
* Inflorescence a slender terete purplish terminal raceme of 2-20 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes; internodes cuneate, 2-5 mm long, craterformous with simple rim. Spikelets in pairs.
* Sessile spikelets oblong or ovate, dorsally compressed, 2-5 mm long; callus glabrous, truncate, with central peg. Lower glume oblong, smooth, rugose or muricate, obtuse, or acute, or acuminate with an awn of 0-5 mm long; upper glume muticous or with an awn up to 5 mm long. Lemma lanceolate, slightly shorter than the spikelet, hyaline. Stigmas purple. Pedicelled spikelets represented by barren pedicels only or a pedicel with an awn of 0-5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Uganda, and C, E and southern Africa, Madagascar; introduced in Latin America.