FTA 9: 323 (1919).- Type: Krauss 28, Afrique du Sud (holo- B; iso- K).
Andropogon filipendulus Hochst., Flora 29: 115(1846);
Andropogon filipendulus Höchst, var. pilosus Hochst., Flora 29:115 (1846);
Sorghum filipendulum (Hochst.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 791 (1891);
Cymbopogon filipendulus (Hochst.) Rendle, Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. 2:157 (1899);
Hyparrhenia filipendula (Höchst.) Stapf var. pilosa (Hochst.) Stapf, FTA, 9: 324 (1919).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 97 (1970); FWTA: 494 (1972); FTEA: 803 (1982) ; Gram. Cameroun: 484, fig (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 341, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca: 113 (2002); Fl. Guinée: 462 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 91 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 133 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial of 0.5-2.5 m high; rhizomes scaly, base with young xtravaginal shoots. Culms erect, often branched from the lower nodes. Leaves linear, 0.2-0.3 m long and 3-5(-12) mm wide, flat or the margins enrolled, glabrous or slightly pubescent; ligule membranous, truncate, up to 1 mm long; sheaths narrow, glabrous or, rarely, basal sheaths sparsely pubescent.
* Inflorescence a spatheolate panicle of 30-80 cm long composed of terminal and axillary paired racemes, excerted and subtended by spatheoles. Spatheoles linear of filiformous, 4.5-5.5 mm long, reddish or greenish, peduncles as long or longer than spatheoles, flexible, sometimes with white hairs. Racemes erect, 1-1.3 cm long with 1 or 2 fertile spikelets each; rhachis fragile, ciliate on the margins with white hairs, internodes and pedicels linear; bases inequal, filiform, the longer 4-8(-10) mm long, glabrous or pubescent. Lower raceme with 1 pair and upper with 2 pairs of homogamous spikelets.
* Sessile spikelets oblong, 5.5-7 mm long; callus linear, pungent, 1.8-3 mm long, pubescent. Lower glume lanceolate, coriaceous, with an indistinct depression near the base, keelless except near apex, glabrous to villous with white hairs, apex dentate. Upper lemma linear, membranous, 2-fid with a geniculate awn of 3-6 cm long from the sinus, with twisted column pubescent with fulvous 0.7-1.2 mm long hairs. Pedicelled spikelets well developed, linear to lanceolate, glabrous.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and C, NE, East and southern Africa