FTA 9: 85 (1917).- Type: Hb. Le Joli s.n., Guinea (type S).
Lepturopsis triaristata Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 358 (1854);
Rhytachne triseta Hack., in Chev. Bot.: 714 (1889).- Type: Schweinfurt 2485, Gir, Sudan (iso- W);
Rottboellia triaristata (Steud.) Roberty, Bull. Inst. Franc. Afrique Noire A22: 108 (1960).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 511 (1972); Ghana grasses: (1977); Gram. Togo: 294, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 528, fig. 116 (1992); Poac. CI: 674, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger : 658, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 235 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 141 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 474 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 107 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 143 (2015).
Description:
* Erect annual up to 0.6 m, solitary or densely tufted. Culm slender, green to purple Leaves linear sometimes flat but usually rolled and filiform, 10-20 cm long and 1.5-2 mm wide, glabrous with a fine whitish midrib and slightly scabrid margins; base finely hairy, passing straight into the sheath; ligule a small finely toothed ciliated white membrane; sheath glabrous, sometimes hairs on the margins.
* Inflorescence with solitary slender terete purplish terminal racemes 5-12 cm long. Rachis fragile at the nodes; internodes cuneate, 4-6 mm long; tip transverse, crater form. Spikelets in pairs. Pedicels linear, 5-8 mm long, ciliate.
* Spikelets oblong, dorsally compressed, 4-5 mm long; callus pubescent truncate with central peg. Lower glume oblong, coriaceous; surface strongly rugose; apex acuminate, 2 -awned, awns 5-7 mm long; upper glume lanceolate with an awn 5-7 mm long. Lower lemma lanceolate, 2 mm long; upper lemma lanceolate, 2 mm long, acute; palea half as long as lemma. Pedicelled spikelets represented by 2 awns of 5-7 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Zambia.