Sp. Gram. Stip. 150 (1842).- Type: Kotschy 103, Sudan (holo LE; isolecto K, L).
Aristida meccana Hochst. Ex Trin.& Rupr., Sp. Gram. Stp.: 152 (1842);
Aristida lauriolii Maire, Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Afrique N. 30:321 (1934);
Aristida cassanelli A. Terracc., F.P.S. 3: 396 (1956).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 157 (1970); FWTA: 381 (1972); Ghana grasses: 100 (1977); Fl. Sahara: 169 (1977); Gram. Cameroun: 101, fig 22 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 84 (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 279 (1998); Poaceae Niger: 164, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 184 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 71 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 119 (2015).
Description:
* Well-branched, erect annual bunchgrass of 0.3-0.6 m high, glabrous. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, weak. Leaves scanty, tightly rolled, filiform and glabrous, 6-14 cm long; ligule an narrow fringe of hairs; the basal sheaths compressed laterally.
* Inflorescence a spreading panicle 12-20 cm long. Spikelets pedicelled, congested at the end of the long slender drooping branches of 5-8 cm long.
* Spikelets grey or pale, sometimes purplish, 8-10 mm long; callus barbed, 0.8 mm long, obtuse. Glumes lanceolate, scaberulous at the ribs; lower glume 4-5 mm long; upper glume 6-7 mm long, acute or apiculate, sometimes mucronate. Lemma convolute, 4-5 mm long, scabrid towards the tip; column of the awn 2-5 mm long, articulated just below the articulation of the fine dark distinctive equal awn branches of 12-13 mm long that break from the column when dry.
Note: Rather variable annual, several varieties have been described over its range, bot these are not sufficiently separated to be considered.