Syn. PI. Glum. 1:268 (1854).- Type: Quartin Dillon s.n., Ethiopia (holo- P).
Poa macilenta A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2:428 (1851).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 391 (1972); FTEA: 235 (1974); Gram. Togo: 216 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 123, fig. 26 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 118, fig. 49 (1995); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 130 (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual, often rather coarse, 30-80 cm high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves flat, thin, 8-20 cm high and 2-8 mm wide ; ligule a fringe of hairs of 0.5 mm long; sheath keeled with slender, tubercle-based hairs along the margins.
* Inflorescence a diffuse panicle of 10-35 cm long, elliptic to ovate; lower branches single, paired or whorled. Spikelets distant on long, capillary pedicels.
* Spikelets linear to narrowly ovate, 3-7 mm long and 1-2 mm wide, 4-18-flowered with the florets contiguous and divergate to give a serrate outline, pale green to blackish, disarticulating from below, the paleas presistent. Glumes subequal, lanceolate, 1-1.6 mm long, acuminate. Lemmas narrowly ovate, 1.3-1.7 mm long, thinly membranous, acute; paleas 1.2 mm long, with scaberulous keels. Anthers 3, 0.3-0.4 mm long. Caryopsis reddish brown, 0.6 mm long, oblong, truncate.
Distribution West Africa: Ivory Coast, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo and C, NE, E and southern Africa, India.