Meded. Rijksherb. 54C: 722 (1933).- Type: Hitchcock 24829, Kenya (holo- L).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 150 (1970); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 78 (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 119 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual of 15–90 cm high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, Leaves linear, up to 15 cm long, expanded or folded.
* Inflorescence a panicle of 5–20 cm long, open, the primary branches bare in their lower half, bearing the spikelets in spike-like clusters at their tips.
* Spikelets purplish; callus narrowly oblong, 0.2 mm long, obtuse. Glumes subequal, linear-lanceolate, 5–8 mm long, scabrid on the keel, acute at the tip. Lemma as long as, or up to 1 mm longer than the glumes, laterally compressed, convolute, scaberulous on the upper half, passing into the awn without a constriction or articulation, branches subequal, 6–15 mm long.