Kew Bull. 1934: 431 (1934).- Type: Barter 954, Nigeria, Nupe (holo- K, iso- P, E).
Trichopteryx hordeiformis Stapf, Kew Bull. 1897: 297 (1897);
Arundinella hordeiformis (Stapf) Roberty, Bull. IFAN, sér. A, 17: 56 (1955).
Regional litterature: FTA, 10:41 (1937); FWTA: 417 (1972); Ghana grasses: 181(1977); Gram. Togo:246 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 371, fig. 79 (1992); Poac. CI: 240, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger: 332, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 216 (2006) ; Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 169 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Pl. Burkina Faso: 95 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Slender small-tufted erect annual of 0.4-1.5 m high. Culms simple soft straw-like; nodes bearded with a double ring of stiffly ascending white hairs Leaves long narrow linear, 15-30 cm long and 4-8 mm wide, hairy, tended to roll inwards, with slightly scabrid margins; base narrowed, barely rounded and passing straight into the sheath; ligule a finely toothed ciliate membrane; sheath usually hairy with hairy margins. Roots a fine fibrous mass.
* Inflorescence a dense, contracted linear panicle, 15-25 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, yellow-green drooping foxtail; branches 2.5 cm long, bearing numerous pedicelled spikelets. Pedicels 1-5 mm long
* Spikelets lanceolate, 14-20 mm long, pubescent; callus curved, 0.5-1.5 mm long, pubescent, unequally 2-toothed and pungent. Glumes exceeding apex of floret, setose with tubercle-based hairs, chartaceous, dark brown; lower glume lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, obtuse or acute; upper glume lanceolate, 12-14 mm long, truncate and caudate. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate, 7-8 mm long, acute; upper lemma oblong, 3-4 mm long, coriaceous, at maturity blackish brown, surface pubescent, dentate, 2 -fid with triangular lobes with geniculate awn 8-14 cm long from a sinus with a twisted column of 4 cm.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.