FTA 9: 301 (1919).- Type: Swynnerton 1637, Zimbabwe (holo- BM, iso- K).
Cymbopogon gazensis Rendle, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 40: 226 (1911);
Hyparrhenia snowdenii C.E.Hubbard, Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1928: 38 (1928).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 797 (1982); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 27, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca: 106 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 131 (2015).
Description:
* Loosely tufted perennial of 0.5-1.8 m high, glabrous at the base. Culms slender, up to 2 mm diameter, weakly erect or geniculately ascending, sometimes sprawling. Leaves 8-20 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, long acuminate, glabrous to thinly pilose; ligule truncate, up to 1 mm long, glabrous or shortly pubescent; sheaths glabrous or pubescent above.
* Inflorescence a narrow loose spatheolate panicle of 10-35 cm long and up to 5 cm wide. Spatheoles linear-lanceolate, 3-4 cm long, glabrous, reddish brown; peduncles 1-3.5 cm long, pilose with white hairs above, covered by the spatheole. Racemes paired, not or late deflexed, 3-5-awned per pair, 1-1.5 cm long, laterally excerted; bases unequal, divergent, the upper filiform, 2.5-3.5 mm long, stiffly pilose with white or yellow hairs, subtruncate at the tip. One homogamous pair of spikelets at the base of the lower or of both racemes.
* Sessile spikelets linear to lanceolate, 4.5-5 mm long, dark brown; callus cuneate, 0.8-1.5 mm long, acute. Lower glume chartaceous, hispidulous. Upper lemma, bifid with a geniculate awn of 2-3 mm long, the column pubescent with fulvous hairs of with hairs of 0.5 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets linear lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, glabrous, brownish-red, terminating in a short mucro 1-2 mm long; pedicel tooth short, broadly triangular. Homogamous spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 5 mm long, brownish.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Uganda, E and southern Africa.