Fl. Afr. Austr. III: 408 (1841).- Type: Jacquin W000344, cult. from seeds from India (holo- W, iso- K).
Poa aspera Jacq., Hort. Vindob. 3: 32 (1776);
Poa hippurus Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl. 69: (1827).- Type: Thonning 351, Ghana (syn- K,P,C);
Eragrostis aspera var major Peter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beheft 40 (1): 107 (1930).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 387, fig 429 (1972); Ghana grasses: 145, fig. 37 (1977); Gram. Togo: 212, fig. (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 453 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 118 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 114, fig. (1995); Poac. CI: 114, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 114, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 282 (1998); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 94, fig (1999); Fl. Bénin: 205 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 167 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 459 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 86 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 129 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual 0.3-0.9 m high. Culms simple or sometimes branched at the base, erect or nearly so, sometimes prop-rooted from basal nodes. Leaves long linear with long fine point, flat and glabrous, strongly nerves on the lower surface, with a white midrib recessed on the upper surface for 1/3 of its length, 30-35 cm long and 5-10 mm broad, smooth to slightly scabrid margins, base hairy passing straight into sheath; ligule a hairy rim of 4 mm long; sheath glabrous with hairy shoulders, the hairs extending partially or completely round the abaxial side in the form of a false ligule.
* Inflorescence a large delicate highly branched spreading ovate-elliptic panicle, 20-50 cm long and 7-25 cm wide, branches ascending, the central axis and main branches coarsely scabrid, hairy at the inception of the branches with long white hairs of up to 5 mm long; the spikelets on long fine pedicels of up to 3 cm long.
* Spikelets light green, often purplish, 4-10 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, 6-22 flowered. Glumes ovate, the lower 0.8 mm long, the upper 1-1.5 mm long. Lemma oblong-elliptical, 1.2-1.7 mm long, obtuse to truncate. Caryopsis sub globose, 0.5 mm long.
Vernacular names: Nzo’on (Matakam, Saxer 529).
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, and Gabon, and C, NE, E and southern Africa into Asia.