Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 271 (1854).- Type: Thunberg s.n., Cape Good Hope, South Africa (holo- UPS).
Poa racemosa Thunb., Prodr. Pl. Cap.: 21 (1794).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 230 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 117, fig (1995); Fl Zambesiaca: 124, fig (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted perennial of 9-80 cm high, the basal sheaths glabrous or thinly silky hairy, becoming compacted and fibrous with age. Leaves mostly basal, flat or sometimes involute, 6-10(-30) cm long and 2-5 mm wide; ligule a fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence a narrowly ovate panicle of 3-18 cm long, open or contracted, the primary branches stiff, racemose or with short side branches bearing 2-3 spikelets. Spikelets on short stout pedicels 1-2 mm long and spreading.
* Spikelets 6-16(-40)-flowered, narrowly oblong to subrotund 3-10(-15) mm long and 1.5-4.5 mm wide, the florets imbricate with the margins of the spikelet usually entire, olive to dark green, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent. Glumes ovate, boat-shaped, subequal, 1.2-2.8 mm long, scabrid on the keel. Lemmas broadly ovate to subrotund, 1.7-3.8 mm long, cartilaginous, subacute; palea scaberulous on the keels, persistent. Anthers 3, 0.7-1.3 mm long. Caryopsis almost square, 0.5-0.7 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and Eritrea and E and southern Africa, Saoudi Arabia.