Ess. Agrost. 74: 167 (1812).- Type: P. Beauv. in Herb. Jussieu 2503, Afrique (holo- P).
Poa mucronata Poir., Encycl. 5: 91 (1804).
Centotheca latifolia Trin., Fund. Agrost. 141 (1820) nom. superfl.
Eragrostis jardinii Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 269 (1854).- Type : Jardin s.n., Guinée (holo- P).
Regional litterature: Fl. Zambesiaca 10,1: 139, fig (1971); FWTA: 381 (1972); Ghana grasses: 184, fig 57 (1977); Gram. Cameroun: 84, fig 17 (1992); Poac. CI: 106, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 218 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 466 (2009)
Description:
* Annual bunchgrass, up to 0.5-0.9 m high; culms glabrous and rooting from the lower nodes, erect to geniculate, branched. Leaves lanceolate, glabrous and finely nerved with transverse veins, 6-10 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, with smooth margins; base rounded, lobed and clasping the culm; ligule a glabrous membrane of 0.5 mm long; sheaths glabrous.
* Inflorescence a large, sparsely branched oblong panicle of 15-25 cm long, with spreading branches of up to 15 cm long, the lower part often without spikelets and higher on numerous spikelets on slender pedicels.
* Spikelets linear lanceolate, strongly compressed, 7-20 mm long and 2-3 mm wide. Glumes 3-nerved, bicarenate, lower 1.5-2.5 mm long, upper 2.5-3 mm long. Florets 8-20, sometimes only 2-3; lemmas elliptical, 7-9-nerved, 2-3 mm long, sometimes mucronate; palea 2.5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Uganda, and E and southern Africa.