Fl. Ital. 1: 461 (1850).- Type: Gouan Herb. Hook.., s.l. (type- K).
Poa littoralis Gouan, Fl. Monsp.: 470 (1764).
Regional litterature: Fl. Sahara: 182 (1977); Fl. Mauritania: 411, fig (1991).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial with long creeping stolons, up to 10-20 cm high. Culms prostrate; butt sheaths glabrous. Leaves distichous, 1-5 cm long and 1-2 mm wide, coriaceous, stiff and glaucous, ribbed, tip pungent; ligule a ciliolate membrane of mm long; sheaths longer than the internode.
* Inflorescence a dense asymmetrical lobed false spike with 2-10 bi-rowed crowded racemes along a central axis of 1-5 cm long. Racemes bi-rowed, crowded.
* Spikelets with 3-10 fertile florets with diminished florets at the top; ovate, 3-4.5 mm long and disarticulating below each fertile floret. Glumes elliptic, chartaceous, 1-keeled; lower glume 1.5 mm long, acute and upper glume 2 mm long, obtuse. Lemmas elliptic, 1.5-2.2 mm long, chartaceous, keeled, glabrous, apiculate, veins prominent. Caryopsis obovoid.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Mediterranean Europe, W, C and E Asia.