FTA 9: 302 (1919).- Type: Drège, South Africa (holo- LUB destr., iso ?K).
Andropogon dichroos Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 389 (1854);
Andropogon bicolor Nees, Fl. Afr. Austr., non Roxb. (1820).- Type: Drège, Afrique de Sud (holo- LUB, destr, iso- K ?).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 796 (1982); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 337 (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca: 104 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 133 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted perennial, up to 3 m high. Culms robust, erect. Leaves linear, rigid, 15-60 cm long and 8-14 mm wide, at the base ciliated with bulbous-based hairs; sheaths glabrous; ligule an eciliate membrane of 1 mm long, truncate.
* Inflorescence in a dense copiously branched false panicle, 20-60 cm long. Spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, 2-3.5 cm long, at length reddish, the peduncles mostly 1-2.5 cm long and half to almost as long as the spatheole. Racemes 1-1.5(-2) cm long, 6-9-awned per pair, glabrescent to fulvous, not deflexed (or very rarely tardily); raceme-bases unequal, the upper 1.5-2.5 mm long, usually softly hirtellous. Homogamous pairs 1 at the base of the lower or both racemes.
* Sessile spikelet lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, usually glossy, the hairs fulvous but often pallid and scanty; callus 0.4-0.8 mm. long, cuneate, obtuse, ciliate. Upper lemma linear, shortly bifid with a geniculate weak awn of (1-)2-3 cm long, column rufously pubescent. Pedicelled and homogamous spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, acute or mucronate; pedicel tooth short, broadly triangular.
Note: Indistinctly separated from H. rufa except for the shorter and broader spatheoles, enclosed racemes, and hirtellous raceme base.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda, NE, E and southern Africa.