J. Linn. Soc. 5, Suppl. 1: 40 (1860).- Type: Tournefort s.n., s.l.(lecto- LINN).
Aristida plumosa Linn., Sp. Pl. Ed. 2, 1666 (1763);
Aristida plumosa var. floccosa (Coss. & Dur.) Dur. & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afric. 5: 806 (1894);
Stipagrostis plumosa ssp. seminuda (Trin.& Rupr.) Scholz, Willdenowia 6: 295 (1971);
Aristida plumosa ssp. lanuginosa (Trabut) Maire, Cat. Pl. Maroc 4: 926 (1941).- Type: Murat 1514, 1452, Mauritania.
Regional litterature: FWTA: 376 (1972); Fl. Sahara : 170 (1977); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 475 , fig (1991); Pl. Mauritanie: 278 (1998); Poac. Niger: 143, fig (1999); Fl. Egypt: 231, fig 67 (2005); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 149 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial of 15-40 cm high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending; 2-3 nodes and internodes distally white-woolly, nodes glabrous. Leaves curled, filiform, convolute, 10-15 cm long and 1 mm wide, apex pungent; basal sheaths wooly scales, upper sheaths glabrous with densely barbed auricles; ligule a fringe of hairs, sometimes wooly.
* Inflorescence a contracted lanceolate panicle of 10--15 cm long, often covered by the sheath of the uppermost leaf. Spikelets pedicelled with scabrid pedicels.
* Spikelets lanceolate, subterete, 9-11 mm long, green or yellowish; callus elongated and pungent, 1-1.7 mm long, bearded with longer hairs above. Glumes unequal, membranous, lanceolate, pallid, attenuate; lower glume 9 mm long; upper glume 10-11 mm long. Lemma oblong, subterete, 3.5-4 mm long, coriaceous, convolute and covering most of palea, acute with a 3-branched awn; limb 25-50 mm long, plumose, glabrescent towards tip and basal third, abscissing from top of lemma; column twisted, 4-10 mm long; lateral awns 8-10 (-25) mm long, glabrous. Caryopsis oblong, 3 mm long.