Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 268 (1854).- Type: Schimper s.n., cult. from seeds Ethiopia (iso- K,W).
Poa paniciformis A Braun, Flora 24: 274 (1841).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 219 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 127, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 61 (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Loosely tufted perennial of 15-90 cm high. Culms erect or geniculate. Leaves flat, 3-15 cm long and 2-5 mm wide; lower sheaths purple-tinged.
* Inflorescence an ovate panicle of 4-22 cm long, primary branches inserted singly and often branched almost to the base, spreading or somewhat contracted, the spikelets borne on long slender pedicels, less often loosely contracted around the primary branches.
* Spikelets 10-26-flowered, ovate, 4-9 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, greyish green to dark green, the base of the rhachilla covered by the closely imbricate lemmas, breaking up with the palea from the base, the rhachilla persistent. Glumes subequal, narrowly ovate, 2-3 mm long, acute. Lemmas broadly ovate-elliptic, 2-2.7 mm long, the surface granular, rounded and somewhat gibbous on the back, the tip abruptly cuspidate to an acute apex or sometimes obtusely triangular; palea falling soon after the lemma, the keels ciliolate with hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long (these not always well developed in the lower florets); anthers 3, 0.5-0.7 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.8-1.2 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Niger, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and C, NE, E and southern Africa.