FTA: 319 (1918).- Type: Chevalier 9795, Chad (lecto- P, iso- K); Chevalier 9849, 9850, 10290, Chad (syn- P)
Cymbopogon bagirmicus Stapf, J. de Bot. 2,2: 2014 (1909);
Andropogon bagirmicus (Stapf) Chev., Sudania 1: 166 (1911);
Cymbopogon solutus Stapf, J. Bot., sér. 2,2: 211(1911).- Type: Chevalier 10507 (lecto- P);
Hyparrhenia soluta (Stapf) Stapf, FTA 9: 318 (1919);
Andropogon brachypodus Stapf ex Chevalier, Sudania 1: 167 (1911), nom. nud., based on Chevalier 9849, 9850, Chad, (both P).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 95 (1970); FWTA: 492 (1972) ; Gram. Cameroun : 478 (1992); Poaceae Niger : 607, fig. (1999) ; Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Annual with solitary culms or in tufts, glabrous at the base, up to 2 m high. Culms robust, erect, sometimes with stilt roots, branched in the upper part, glabrous. Leaves 0.3-0.4 m long and 3-5 mm wide, hairy at the base and the margins scabrid; ligule membranous, 2-3 mm long; sheaths glabrous, the margins ciliate.
* Inflorescence in a lax narrow spathate panicle of 0.2-0.8 m long. Spatheoles narrow, convolute, 5-8 cm long, often reddish,; pedoncule usually shorter than spatheole, laterally excerted, sometimes terminally with long yellow hairs. Racemes paired, 2-3 cm long, recurved at maturity, 6-9 awns per pair; bases inequal, the lower short, the upper 2-3 mm long, glabrous or with a few hairs; internodes and pedicels linear with white or slightly reddish hairs. One pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the lower raceme. Peduncle as long as spatheole Pedicel-tooth 0.3-0.7 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets linear-lanceolate, 5-7 mm long, acute and with white hairs; callus pungent, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Lower glume sub-chartaceous, truncate at the tip, flat ot dlightly rounded, with white hairs and 2-keeled towards the tip; upper glume boat-shaped, narrow with one keel towards the tip. Lower lemma hyaline, narrow; upper glume linear, bifid with hyaline lobes extended into a dark-brown to black awn of 5-8 cm long, column hirtellous with white or rusty hairs of 1-1.5 mm long. Pedicelled and homogamous spikelets linear-lanceolate,7-8 mm long, shortly mucronate; lower glume pilose with white or rusty hairs acuminate or mucronate.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad.