in Turkey, Narr. Exp. Congo, Append. 478 (1818).- Type: Hb. Linn. 87-66, Jamaica (holo- LINN).
Poa ciliaris Linn., Syst. Nat., ed 10, 2: 875 (1759);
Eragrostis pulchella Parl., Atti Riunione Sci. Ital. 5: 586 (1847).- Type: Hooker 81, Cape Verde (holo- FI; iso- K);
Eragrostis ciliaris (Linn.) R. Br. var. brachystachya Boiss., Fl. Orient. 5 : 582 (1884).- Type : Schimper 742, Saudi Arabia (iso-WAG).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 204 (1970); FWTA: 386 (1972); Ghana grasses: 151 (1977); Gram. Togo: 215 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 453 (1991); Fl. Mauritania: 408, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 113, fig 25 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 113 (1995); Poac. CI: 110, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger: 185, fig. (1999); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 69 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 206 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 167 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 459 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 87 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 129 (2015).
Description:
* Simple, loosely tufted, erect or geniculately ascending annual of 0.15-0.6 m high. Nodes of culms black and constricted. Leaves rather sparse, up to 20 cm long and 2.5-5 mm wide, glabrous to sparsely hairy with smooth to sparsely scabrid margins and a slightly rounded and hairy base and a distinct whitened collar; sheath striated and slightly compressed, glabrous except for the densely hairy shoulders and margins; ligule a narrow hyaline membrane with some long hairs. Roots well developed.
* Inflorescence a spike-like woolly, panicle, more or less lobed or interrupted, 4-15 cm long and 5-15 mm wide with dense interrupted clusters of spikelets. Spikelets shortly pedicilate, over the whole length of the branches; pedicels 0.2-0.6 mm.
* Spikelets with 6-12 florets, pallid yellow-green to grey linear, 2-4.5 mm long and 1.5-2.5 mm broad. Lowet glume 0.9 mm and upper glume 1-1.2 mm long. Lemmas elliptical, obtuse, light green, 1.2-1.5 mm long, 3 green nerves, with a few short stiff hairs on the keel; palea hairs much longer than the width of the floret. Caryopsis elliptical, 0.3-0.5 mm long.
Vernacular names: By tie dombi waledyi, by tie domru wudokare (fulani, Malzy 64,504); gizing gamba (Guiziga, Onana 5); haudo bodji (foulfouldé, SRF4621,4622); ngongui (Douala, Meurillon CNAD1547); witso domru muskuari (foulfouldé, SRF15834).
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: Morocco, Algeria, Lybia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, C, NE, E and southern Africa, tropical Asia into SE Asia. Introduced in the Americas.