Révis. Gramin. 1: 67 (1829).- Type: Forsskal s.n., Suez, Egypt (holo- C).
Agrostis spicata Vahl, Symb. Bot. 1: 9 (1790).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 408 (1972); Fl. Sahara: 173 (1977); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 471, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 151, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 292 (1998); Poac. Niger: 196, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 181 (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 149 (2015).
Description:
* Stoloniferous or caespitose glaucous perennial 0.3-0.6 m high, mat-forming. Culms vigourous, erect to wiry, often with shoots at the nodes, searching over and rooting to form stolons. Leaves stiff, painfully pungent, 2-30 cm long and 1-4 mm wide, glaucous, the upper side covered with long hairs, the lower side glabrous; ligule a narrow fringe of hairs, 0.6 mm long.
* Inflorescence a dense linear, spike-like panicle, compactly cylindrical, slender, 5-20 cm long and 2-4 mm wide; axis glabrous and smooth; primary branches closely appressed, 1-6 mm long, completely obscured bythe tightly overlapping spikelets.
* Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 1.4-2.8 mm long, usually pallid. Lower glume a broad scale, ovate to lanceolate, acute, 0.2-1 mm long, hyaline; upper glume narrowly ovate, 1-2.2 mm long, hyaline. Lemma oblong-elliptic, as long as spikelet, hyaline, with broad infolding margins. Anthers 3, 1.2-1.4 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.7-1.1 mm long.
Vernacular names: Adaouw (Goran, Leonard 3685).
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, and NE and E Africa, Middle East and India.