Hooker’s Icon. PI. 23: tab. 2394 (1895).- Type: Mann 2092, Cameroon (holo- K, iso- U).
Arundinella elegantula Hook, f., J. Linn. Soc.7:233 (1864);
Trichopteryx glanvillei Hubbard, Kew Bull 1934:426 (1934);
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 11 (1937); Fl. Nig.: 26 (1970); FWTA: 420 (1972); FTEA: 410 (1974); Gram. Cameroun: 365 (1992).
Description:
* Annual gregarious herb of 5-25 cm high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, 1-2.5 cm long and 1-5 mm wide, pilose; ligule a fringe of hairs of 1-1.5 mm long; sheaths shorter than internode.
* Inflorescence an obovate panicle of 3-10 cm long, fairly loose, hardly excerted from the uppermost sheath; brances filiformes with solitary or geminate spikelets, pedicels 4-8 mm long.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 mm long, pilose with tubercle based hairs or glabrous; callus pilose, obtuse. Lower glume half as long as spikelet, chartaceous, dark brown; upper glume similar, as long as spikelet. Lower lemma barren with palea; upper lemma oblongue, 1.5-2 mm long, pubescent with 2 lateral tufts of hairs, bifid and 3-awned, the central awn geniculate, 10-14 mm long, the lateral awns 4 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Uganda, and Tanzania, C and southern Africa.