Fl. Afr. Austral. Ill.: 401 (1841).- Drège sn, South Africa (syn- L, P).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 240 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 124, fig (1995); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Loosely tufted annual of 6-80 cm. high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, usually with a ring of elongated glands just below the node. Leaves flat, 4-15 cm long and 2-5 mm wide; sheaths pilose with tubercle-based hairs, rarely glabrous, with or without glandular pits; ligule a fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence a lanceolate to ovate panicle, 8-25 cm long, the lowest branches whorled, bearded or glabrous in the axils.
* Spikelets 5-12-flowered, linear-oblong, 3-5 mm long and 1 mm wide, grey-green, commencing to break up from the base, the rhachilla persistent below but fragile above. Glumes ovate, hyaline to membranous, greyish, 1-veined, 0.6-1.5 mm long. Lemmas obovate-elliptic, 1.1-1.5 mm long, with obscure lateral nerves, broadly rounded to truncate; palea minutely scaberulous on the keels, persistent. Anthers 3, 0.6-0.9 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.5-0.6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia and Kenya, southern Africa, Saoudi Arabia.