Blumea 4: 514 (1941).- Type: Stock 636, Pakistan (type- K); Stock s.n., India (type- L).
Saccharum hirsutum Forssk., Fl. Aegypt.-Arab.: 16 (1775);
Rottboellia hirsuta Vahl, Symb. Bot. 1: 11 (1790), nom. superfl.;
Ischaemum hirsutum Nees ex Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 361 (1854);
Lasiurus hirsutus Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient., ser. 2, 4: 146 (1859), nom. superfl.
Regional litterature: Fl. Mauritania: 408, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 359, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 310 (1998); Poac. Niger : 636, fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 135 (2015).
Description:
* Perennial, more or less caespitose, often rhizomatous, up to 0.9 m high; rhizomes with pubescent persistant sheaths. Culms erect, branched from the base, glabrous, with ciliate nodes. Leaves linear, up to 30 cm long and 6 mm wide, flat or convolute, glabrous or pubescent with tubercle based hairs on the underside; ligule a rim of hairs; sheaths glabrous or pilose.
* Inflorescence composed of spiciform racemes of up to 14 mm long and 5 mm wide, cylindrical and densely pilose; rhachis fragile, villous on the nodes; internodes and pedicels linear, flat, villose on the external side. Spikelets in threes, rarely geminate, with two sessile ones and one pedicelled.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate-elliptical, 6-9 mm long, light green; callus a ciliated ring. Lower glume sub-coriaceous, multi-nerved, densely ciliated, flattened but 2-keeled towards the tip; upper glume membranous, boat-shaped with ciliate keel. Lower lemma hyaline; upper lemma hyaline, lanceolate, scabrous on the nerves. Caryopse oblong. Pedicelled spikelet similar but smaller; callus little distinct, with two male densely ciliate florets.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia; and NE Africa, southern Asia.