Taxon 64: 459 (2015).- Type: Nigeria, Vogel 189 (holo- K); Barter 537, Niger (syn- K).
Microchloa obtusiflora Benth., Fl. Nigrit. 565 (1849);
Brachyachne obtusiflora (Bentham) C.E.Hubb., Kew Bull. 1933: 503 (1933).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 403 (1972); Ghana grasses: 113, fig 15 (1977); Gram. Togo: 166 (1983); Poac. CI: 178, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 240 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 190 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 74 (2012) ; Fl. Chad (2013)
Description:
* Branched, dense tiny caespitose annual 10-30 cm high. Culms stiffly angled geniculate, delicate, often purple at the base with dark purple nodes. Leaves glabrous and needle-like or reduced to a tiny point on the apex of the sheath, 10-20 cm long and 0.5-1 mm broad; ligule a ciliolate membrane; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence a slender terminal golden-green raceme of 2.5-6 cm long, unilateral. Rhachis flattened, with 2 green main nerves; spikelet packed broadside to rhachis, crowded, regular 2-rowed.
* Spikelets oblong, laterally compressed with 1 fertile and no imperfect florets, 2.2-2.5 mm long. Glumes longer than the floret and enclosing it; upper and lower glumes much compressed laterally, obtuse and keeled, deciduous and 2.2-2.5 mm long. Lemma ovate, laterally compressed, hyaline, margins ciliate and hairy below; apex emarginated; palea similar.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, CAR and Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Zambia and Angola.