Repert. Spec. Nov. Regno. Veg. 18:2 (1922).- Type: Volkens 1831, Tanzania (holo- B).
Agrostis soraria C.E. Hubb., Kew Bull. 1936: 305 (1936.- Type: Oliver 16, Uganda ((holo- K).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 110 (1970); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 49, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 117 (2015).
Description
* Straggling or tufted perennial of 30–90 cm high. Culms slender and geniculately ascending or erect, 1-2 mm in diameter. Leaves 5–20 cm long and 1–4 mm wide, flat, glabrous; ligule an eciliate membrane, 3 mm long, oblong.
* Inflorescence linear to narrowly oblong panicle or sometimes ovate, 5–22 cm long, the branches flexuous, filiformous, ascending with crowded spikelets, sometimes spreading and open. Spikelets solitary, with a pedicel.
* Spikelets oblong, 2.5–3.5 mm long, gaping, green or purple; rhachilla-extension 0–1 mm long, hairy. Glumes persistent, smooth on the sides, acuminate, the lower lanceolate and 1-nerved, the upper narrower and shorter, 1-sub–3-nerved, sometimes glandular beside the keel. Lemma ovate-oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm long, pilose, 5-nerved, the lateral nerves excurrent into short mucros, awned from near the base, awn geniculate, 3-6 mm long; palea as long as the lemma. Caryopsis elliptic, 1.7 mm long, light brown.
Distribution West Africa: South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, Tanzania.