Sp. Pl 68 (1753).- Type: Hb. Linn. 87-, Europe (holo- LINN).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 49 (1970); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,1: 51, fig (1971; FWTA: 369 (1972); Gram. Cameroun: 54, fig: 10 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 20, fig (1995).
Description:
* Tufted annual, 10-30 cm high. Culms erect or straggling and decumbent. Leaves soft, bright green, often crinkled when young, 3-10 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, obtuse; ligule hyaline, 1.5-2 mm long.
* Inflorescence a pyramidal panicle of 3-5 cm long, light green, often reddish; branches capillary, ascending, up to 4 cm long.
* Spikelets 3-5 florets, ovate, 3.5-6 mm longdesarticulating between the florets. Glumes elliptic, with broad hyaline margins, the lower 2-3 mm and the upper 3-3.5 mm long. Lemmas 2.5-3.5 mm long, membranous with broad white margins and tip and sily-villous on the keel and marginal nerves, obtuse or emarginate ; palea keel wooly. Anthers 0.5-1 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cameroon.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Lybia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea, E and southern Africa, Europe, Asia, cosmopolite.