Annuario Reale Ist. Bot. Roma 8: 351 (1908 publ. 1907).- Type: Pappi 614, Eritrea, Guna Guna (lecto- FT, isolecto- K)
Regional litterature: FTEA: 291 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 97, fig. (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 150 (2015)
Description:
* Caespitose perennial forming compact tussocks; basal sheaths pale, non fibrous. Culms erect; 6-35 cm long. Leaves filiform, involute, 2.5-15 cm long and 0.5-0.75 mm wide, sparsely hairy, acuminate; ligule a ciliolate membrane.
* Inflorescence a single unilateral raceme of 3-15 cm long, clearly extending above the leaves, the spikelets distant or only slightly imbricate. Rhachis angular; spikelets 2 -rowed.
* Spikelets with 3-5 fertile florets with diminished florets at the apex, cuneate, 8.5-15 mm long, dark olive green to blackish or purplish, disarticulating below each fertile floret; internodes villous; hairy below; callus pilose. Lower glume 1.3-4.3 mm long, membranous, acute or acuminate; upper 4.5-8.4 mm long; membranous, caudate, or acuminate. Lemmas elliptic, 3.5-5.2 mm long, membranous, black, scaberulous; dentate, 2 -fid, 3 -awned; principal awn from a sinus, flexuous, 4-10 mm long overall; lateral awns arising on outer edge of lobes; 0.5-1.5 mm long. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped. Anthers 3, 1.4-2 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Arabia.