Rév. Gram. 1: 68 (1829).- Type: König s.n., India (lecto- LD; iso- BM,L,S).
Agrostis coromandeliana Retz., Obs. Bot. 4: 19 (1786).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 363 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 147 (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 148 (2015).
Description:
* Loosely tufted annual of 5-30 cm high. Culms erect or ascending, branched. Leaves broadly linear, flat, 2-10 cm long and 2-4.5 mm wide, midnerve at the lower side with long bristles, the margins firm, scabrid, with a few long stiff hairs near the base; ligule a narrow membranous fringe of hairs; sheath ribbed, glabrous except for the margins higher on and the shoulders.
* Inflorescence an ovate panicle 2-8 cm long. Lowest primary branches whorled, succeeding branches subverticillate, spreading horizontally soon after emergence, bare for the lower 1/2 -1/3 of their length and with a glandular patch in this portion. Spikelets borne on 2-4-spiculate branchlets or direct on the primary branches on slender pedicels.
* Spikelets narrowly elliptic, 1.0-1.4 mm long, glabrous or scaberulous, greyish green. Lower glume a little scale of 0.1-0.5 mm long; upper glume oblong elliptic, as long as spikelet, acute, 1-veiened. Lemma little shorter than upper glume. Anthers 2 or 3, 0.3-0.4 mm long. Caryopsis obovate, 0.7-0.8 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Kenya, NE and southern Africa, Asia; introduced in Australia.