Fl. Bad. 1: 8 (1805).- Type: Herb. Van Royen, Europe (lecto- LINN, L).
Festuca myuros Linnaeus, Sp. Pl.: 74 (1753).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 64 (1970) ); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 28, fig (1995); Fl. Libya: 27 (1988).
Description:
* Annual of 10-70 cm high. Culms tufted or solitary, erect or geniculately ascending, slender, glabrous. Leaves linear, 2-15 cm long and 0.5-3 mm wide, flat or rolled, firm to flaccid, rough on the margins, puberulous above; basal sheaths loose and flat.
* Inflorescence a loose or somewhat dense linear panicle, 5-30 cm long, mostly curved or nodding, enclosed by the uppermost sheaths or just exserted from it; branches short, appressed.
* Spikelets oblong or wedge-shaped, 7-10 mm long (excluding awns), 3-7-flowered, green or purplish. Lower glume linear-lanceolate, 1-3 mm long; upper glume subulate-lanceolate, 3-8 mm long. Lemmas 5-7 mm long, scabrid, tipped with a scaberulous awn up to 15 mm long. Anthers usually 1, 0.3-1 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Europe, W and S Asia, introduced in Indonesia, Australia and the Americas.