PLoS 9(8): e104933: 9 (2014).- Type: Kirk, Chupagna, Mozambique (holo- K)
Cleistachne sorghoides Benth., Ic. Pl. 14, t. 1379 (1882).
Cleistachne macrantha Stapf, FTA 9: 155 (1917).- Type : Hildebrandt 1956, Mombassa, Kenya (syn- K,L,W) ; Holst 3232, Lubindi, Usambara, Tanzania (syn- K).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 154 (1917); FTEA: 734 (1982); Fl. Zambesiaca: 32, fig (2002).
Description:
* Erect stilt-rooted annual up up to 0.6-2.5 m high. Culm slender, nodes and internodes glabrous;; leaves 20-90 cm long and 4-15 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, pilose on both surfaces but less so on the inferior, the midrib prominent, often narrowed into a false petiole; sheaths pilose or glabrous; ligule an eciliate membrane.
* Inflorescence in a flexuous panicle of 8-40 cm long, composed of 4-8 racemes, borne on the main axis or on very short verticellate branches; internodes and pedicels pilose. Racemes loose, 4-8 cm long.
* Spikelets oblong-elliptic, 4-5 mm long, oblong, straw-coloured to chestnut-brown; callus pubescent, obscure. Glumes similar in size, slightly coriaceous. Lower glume finely 7-nerved, narrowly truncate at the apex, pilose with white or fulvous hairs; upper glume pilose, especially at the apex and on the margins, often with a glabrous midline. Lower floret barren, the lemma hyaline, oblong, fulvously pubescent at the tip, 2-nerved; upper floret 2-3 mm long 2-fid with an awn of 15-35 mm long from the sinus, geniculate with pilose column and scabrid limb; palea present.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, E and southern Africa, Oman, India.