Fl. Afr. Austr. III: 161 (1841).- Type: Drège s.n., South Africa (syn- K,L,LE) ; Ecklon & Zeyher s.n., South Africa (syn- S).
Vilfa iocladus Nees ex Trin., Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Petersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. Seconde Pt. Sc. Nat. 5(2): 62 (1840);
Sporobolus marginatus A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 397 (1851).- Type: Schimper 1770, Ethiopia, Modat (iso- G,K,L).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 407 (1972); FTEA: 367 (1974); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 471, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 147 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 148, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 291 (1998); Poac. Niger: 292, fig. (1999); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 174 (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 148 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial, often with stolons and forming dense tussocks, 15-90 cm tall. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, little branched, nodes brown; vegetative shoots with strongly flattened sheaths. Leaves 2-30 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent, with tubercle-based hairs, margins cartilaginous and usually bearing stiff hairs; ligule a reduced line of hairs; sheaths of shoots often keeled and flabellately interleaved to form compact fascicles.
* Inflorescence in a pyramidal panicle, usually spreading, 3-20 cm long and 4-7 cm wide. Primary branches in 4-8 whorls, 1.5-5 cm long, bare for the lower ¼-1/3 of their length, often purplish, spikelets borne on side branches of 3-15 mm long.
* Spikelet 1.5-2.2 mm long, smooth or scaberulous, grey-green to pallid, rarely purplish, flattened. Lower glume oblong, 0.2-0.8 mm long; upper glume narrowly ovate, as long as spikelet. Lemma similar to upper glume. Anthers 3, 1-1.2 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.6-1 mm long.
Vernacular names: somparsi, gudo marori (foulfouldé, Malzy HNC 15132).
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Tunesia, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and NE, E and southern Africa, Middle East and S Asia.