FTA 9: 437 (1918).- Type: Schimper 1055, Ethiopia (iso- K, isosyn- WAG).
Andropogon papillipes Hochst. ex A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 460 (1850);
Hyparrhenia lintonii Stapf, FTA 9: 350 (1918).- Type: Linton 124, Kenya (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 808 (1972); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 345, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 134 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted perennial arising from a short underground rhizome, 0.3-1 m high, usually clad in cataphylls at the base. Culms slender, erect or ascending, 1-2 mm diameter at the base. Leaves short, 5-15 cm long and 2-4 mm wide, glabrous, light green to glaucous, tapering to a setaceous point; ligule 0.5 mm long; sheaths glabrous or the basal sheaths pubescent to tomentose.
* Inflorescence a rather scanty spathate panicle of 2-10 raceme-pairs. Spatheoles linear-lanceolate, 4-7 cm long, rolled around the peduncle at maturity, glabrous; peduncles flexuous, 3-8 cm long, from ¾ to longer than the spatheole, pilose with yellowish hairs near the tip. Racemes tardily reflexed, 2-4 cm long, 9-19 awned per pair, white-hairy, long excerted; bases subequal, the upper 1-2 mm long and becoming subterete above, the rim produced into a scarious appendage; appendage narrowly oblong to linear, 0.5-1.2 (0.2-1.7) mm long, purple. One pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the lower raceme only.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, purplish, silky villous with white hairs; callus cuneate, subacute, 0.7-1 mm long. Lower glume lanceolate, coriaceous, keel-less except near the tip, villous; upper glume linear. Lower lemma lanceolate, hyaline; upper glume linear, membranous, bifid, with a geniculate awn of 2-3 cm long; column twisted, pubescent with 0.2-0.4 mm long hairs. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, 6-9 mm long, glumes membranous, villous, awnless or rarely with a short awn-point up to 1.5 mm long; pedicel tooth subulate, 0.4-0.8 (0.2-1.5) mm long. Homogamous spikelets 5.5-7 mm long, villous.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan, ?South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, E Africa, Yemen.