Taxon 63: 1234 (2014).- Type: unknown, Egypt.
Crypsis niliaca Fig. & De Not., Mem. Reale Accad. Sci. Torino, ser. 2, 14: 322 (1854);
Phalaris vaginiflora Forssk., Fl. Aegypt.-Arab.: 18 (1775).- Type: Forskall 52, 53, Egypt (syn- C);
Crypsis vaginiflora (Forssk.) Opiz, Mem. Reale Accad. Sci. Torino II, 14: 322 (1854) ;
Crypsis compacta Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 151 (1854).- Type: Roger 91, Senegal (syn- K); Leprieur s.n., Senegal (syn- K).
Regional litterature: Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 142, fig 59 (1995).
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, but not pectinate ciliate on the margins; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheaths chartaceous, glabrous on the back, pilose near the margins.
* Inflorescence a 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 spikelets or sometimes barren.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 2-2.7 mm long, fusiform but soon gaping. Lower glume lanceolate, 0.8-1.7 mm long, acute; upper glume ovate, as long as spikelet, nerveless, glabrous. Lemma ovate, 1-1.2 mm long, membranous, acute. Anthers 3, 1.2 mm long. Caryopsis orbicular, 1.2-1.5 mm in diameter.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, NE Africa and Tanzania into India; introduced in the USA.