Sp. Pl. 972 (1753).- Type: Indies (holo- LINN).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 27 (1917); FI. Agr. Congo Belge 1:44 (1929); FWTA: 511 (1972); Ghana grasses: 123, fig. 21 (1977); FTEA: 857, fig. 205 (1982); Gram. Togo: 179, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 542, fig. 120 (1992); Poac. CI: 680, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 193, fig. (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 135 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 453 (2009).
Description:
* Stout well-branched erect annual, up to 2 m high. Culms smooth, grey-green, cane-like, markedly flattened opposite diverging branches, leafy throughout. Leaves linear to ovate-lanceolate, 0.1-1 m long and 1.5-5 cm broad, glabrous, finely nerved with scabrid margins; base asymmetrical, rounded on one side and tapered on the other; ligule a short truncate membrane; sheaths tightly clasping the culm, slightly hairy towards the apex, otherwise glabrous. Roots delicate, sparse.
* Inflorescence solitary or clustered in leaf axils, consisting of peduncles 3-6 cm long with a terminal hard, more or less spherical polished blue-white cupola (modified leaf-sheath) enclosing the female and male racemes; female raceme with one sessile spikelet and 2 barren pedicels, the 2 stigmas poking through a hole in the apex; male racemes 3-5 cm long, exerted from the cupola.
* Femelle spikelet with lower glume sub-globose, subcartilaginous, towards the tip aigue. Male spikelet lanceolate to ellipsoid, 7-8 mm long, falling at maturity, 1-2 staminate florets, with a lemma, palea and 3 stamens. False fruit (cupola) variable, usually 8-12 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Introduced in Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Asia; introduced in Algeria, Gabon, Congo, DRC, Uganda, and C, E and southern Africa, Ethiopia, Europe, Australia and the Americas.