Denkschr. Acad. Wiss. Muenchen 270 t. 12 (1814).- Type: La Mark, India (holo- C).
Cynosurus retroflexus Vahl, Symb. Bot. 2: 20 (1791) ;
Dinebra arabica Jacq., Fragm. 77, t. 121/1 (1809).- Type: Rodriguez U-102, Spain (holo- SEV);
Dinebra brevifolia Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1 299 (1854).- Type: Kotschy 1839/135, Sudan, Arasch-Cool (syn- L); Schimper 527, Ethiopia (syn- BR,L,W).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 31 (1970); FWTA: 395 (1972); FTEA: 273 (1974); Fl. Mauritania: 411, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 108, fig 24 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 105, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 286 (1998); Poac. Niger: 223, fig. (1999) ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 82 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 105, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 127 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual of 0.2-1.2 m high. Culms reddish at the base, erect or straggling and ascending from a decumbent base, much branched and often rooting from the lower nodes. Leaves glandular, especially on the sheaths, flat, 4-20 cm long and 3-8 mm wide; ligule membranous, lacerate, pilose, 0.8 mm long.
* Inflorescence a linear racemous panicle of 8-34 cm long, with several to many racemes irregularly arranged along a central axis. Racemes oblong to wedge-shaped, 0.6-8 cm long, stiff, ascending at first, reflexing and deciduous at maturity; rhachis flattened with green margins.
* Spikelets 1-3-flowered, grey, 5.5-9 mm long, 1-3-flores, the lower one(s) fertile, the upper one reduced. Glumes narrowly elliptic with caudate diverging tips, 6-8 mm long, coriaceous, glandular on the keel. Lemmas narrowly ovate, 2-3 mm long, appressed-pilose along the lower part, acute to emarginate, mucronulate ; palea appressed-pilose on the marginal side of the keels.Anthères elliptical, 0.4 mm long. Caryopsis obovoid, 12 mm long, reddish brown.
Note: Very variable in inflorescence structure.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo, Burundi, NE, E and southern Africa, W and southern Asia.