Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 193, pl. 63 (1816).- Type: Bonpland s.n., Venezuela (holo- P).
Elionurus pobeguinii Stapf, Journ. de Bot. 19: 99 (1905).- Type: Pobeguin 517, Guinea (iso- K);
Elionurus tenax Stapf, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1909: 422 (1910).- Type: Bardeau s.n., Guinea (syn- K).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 67 (1917); FWTA: 505 (1972); Ghana grasses: 142 (1977); Gram. Togo: 206 (1983); Fl. Guinée: 457 (2009); Gram. Cameroun: 518, fig. 114 1992); Poac. CI: 656, fig. (1985); Fl. Bénin: ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 84 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Tufted perennial up to 2 m. Culms well branched, erect, usually purple tinged, internodes grooved opposite emergent branches. Leaves aromatic, long narrow linear, usually rolled inwards, 5-10 cm long, 2-4 mm wide; aromatic, glabrous to finely nerved with scabrid margins; base passes directly into the sheath; ligule a short ciliated membrane; sheath glabrous. Roots dense, well developed.
* Inflorescence a spreading compound false panicle, subtended by a sheath, branches emerging in twos and threes, with single terminal and axillary silvery-hairy racemes on peduncles of 5-13 cm long. Racemes flexuous, 5-9 cm long; rachis fragile, puberulous on surface, ciliate on margins; internodes linear, 2-3 mm long, tip flat. Pedicels filiform, flattened, 2-3 mm long, pubescent.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate or oblong, 7-9 mm long; callus obtuse, 1 mm long; pubescent, base obtuse. Lower glume ovate, chartaceous, with oil streaks, 2-keeled, glabrescent to villous with ciliate hairs of 1mm, bifid at the top with two awns 1-3.5 mm long; upper glume lanceolate, pubescent to ciliate, acute with awn up to 1 mm. Lower lemma lanceolate, 4 mm long, hyaline, ciliolate on margins; upper lemma lanceolate, 3 mm long; hyaline, margins ciliolate. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate or ovate, 3-4 mm long, glumes chartaceous, keeled, glabrous, ciliate, acuminate.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Latin America.