in L.Robecchi-Bricchetti, Somalia & Benadir: 726 (1899).- Type: Robecchi-Bricchetti 193, 247, 254, Somalia (syn- FT); Schimper 1757, Ethiopia (iso- P); Schlieben 6381, Tanzania (iso- LISC).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 177 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 126, fig (1995); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2:107 (1999); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Loosely or densely tufted slender annual of 10-60 cm high. Culms erect or ascending, slender, branched or unbranched; glabrous at the nodes and often dotted with glands below thr nodes. Sheaths glabrous; ligule a line of hairs; leaf-blades linear, flat or involute, 3-20 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, glabrous.
* Inflorescence a delicate and open elliptic panicle, 6-25 cm long, glabrous in the axils, the primary branches often loosely whorled, the lower ones often with glands around the insertion. Spikelets evenly distributed on the pedicels.
* Spikelets 6-18-flowered, linear, 1.7-5 mm long and 0.7-1 mm wide, greyish green, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent. Glumes narrowly ovate, hyaline, unequal, the lower 0.3-0.5 mm. long, the upper 0.6-0.8 mm. Lemmas broadly ovate, 0.7-1 mm long; palea falling soon after the lemma, the keels smooth. Anthers 3, 0.1-0.2 mm long. Caryopsis broadly ellipsoid, 0.4-0.5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Chad
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Arabic peninsula.