Kew Bull. 35: 817 (1981).- Type: Loureiro s.n., Cochinchina (holo- BM).
Stegosia cochinchinensis Loureiro, Fl. Cochin. 1: 51 (1790);
Rottboellia exaltata Linn.f., Nov. Gram. Gen. 40, t. 1 (1781), non (L.) L.f. 1779.
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 73 (1917); Fl. Agr. Congo Beige 1: 64, fig. 3 (1929); Fl. Gabon 5: 134, fig. 22 (1962); Fl. Nigeria: 103,fîg. 47b (1970); FWTA: 506; Ghana grasses: 220, fig. 78 (1977); FTEA: 853, fig. 302 (1982); Poac. CI: 664, fig. (1985); Gram. Togo: 297 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 534, pl. 118 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 365, fig (1995); Poac. Niger : 651, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 174, fig (1999); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 141 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 474 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 108 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 143 (2015).
Description:
* Coarse erect branched annual bunchgrass of up to 3 m or more. Culms stout, terete but deeply grooved to accommodate emergent branches, strongly prop-rooted from several basal nodes. Leaves often laxly drooping from the culm, broad linear, 0.3-0.6 m long and 1-3 cm broad, flat and finely nerves with a conspicuous white midrib and sharp scabrid margins; upper surface scabrid and stiffly hairy; base narrowed, passing directly into sheath; ligule a small brownish ciliate membrane; sheaths prickly-hairy, especially towards the base of the culm. Roots coarse robust and sparse.
* Inflorescence in spathate false panicles with numerous solitary terete ‘rat-tail’ racemes terminating the culm and each of its numerous branches. Racemes 3-15 cm long, glabrous, terminating in a tail of reduced spikelets. Pedicels and internodes fused over their length, leaving cavities for the sessile spikelets; pedicel shorter than the internode.
* Sessile spikelet oblong-elliptic, 4-7 mm long, pallid, glabrous, awnless. Lower glume coriaceous, 2-keeled and winged towards the tip, 3.5-5 mm long; upper glume keeled, narrowed towards the tip. Lemmas hyaline. Caryopsis oblong, 3 mm. Pedicelled spikelet darker, narrowly ovate, 3-5 mm long, herbaceous, green.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and NE, C, E and southern Africa, Asia, Australia; introduced in the Americas.