Ind. For. Rec. Bot., n.s. 1: 92 (1938).- Type: Griffith 6766, India (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 799 (1982); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 110 (2002).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial of 1-2 m high. Culms 2-3 mm wide. Leaves 20-40 cm long and 4-8 mm wide; sheaths glabrous or sparsely pilose; ligule membranous, 1 mm wide.
* Inflorescence in a narrow, lax false panicle up to 35 cm long. Spatheoles 4-7 cm long, linear, convolute; peduncle from 2/3 as long as to slightly longer than the spatheole, pilose with white hairs above. Racemes 1.5-3.5 cm long, 5-10-awned per pair, white-hirsute, strongly deflexed; internodes 3.5-4.5 mm long; raceme-bases unequal, the superior 3.5-8 mm long, terete, glabrous. A single pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of each raceme.
* Sessile spikelets 6-7 mm long; callus 1.5-2 mm long, pungent. Lower glume lanceolate, brownish to dark violet, white-hirsute; awn 4-6 cm long, the column pubescent with rufous hairs 0.4-0.6 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets 6-8 mm long, linear-lanceolate, villous, with or without a terminal awnlet up to 4 mm long; callus absent; pedicel-tooth c. 0.5 mm long, subulate. Homogamous spikelets similar to the pedicelled spikelets.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Madagascar, India, SE Asia.