Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 399 (1851).- Type: Schimper 1181, Ethiopia, Adua (syn- P); Quartin Dillon s.n., Ethiopia, Shire (syn- P).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 359, fig. 100 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 145, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 169 (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 148 (2015).
Description:
* Loosely tufted annual of 0.15-0.5 m high. Culms erect, often branched below. Leaves linear, 5-30 cm long and 2-6 mm wide, sparsely pilose, not pectinate ciliate on the margins; sheaths chartaceous, glabrous on the back, pilose near the margins.
* Inflorescence narrowly elliptic panicle, 4-18 cm long. Primary branches in whorls, capillary, bearing 1-4 evenly distributed spikelets; those of the lowest whorl with only 1-2 fertile spikelets or sometimes barren.
* Spikelets 2-2.7 mm long, fusiform but soon gaping. Lower glume lanceolate, 0.8-1.7 mm long; upper glume ovate, as long as spikelet, nerveless, glabrous; ovate. Lemma elliptic-ovate, 1-1.2 mm long. Anthers 3, 1.2 mm long. Caryopsis spherical, 1.2-1.5 mm in diameter.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda and NE, E and southern Africa, Yemen.