Compagnie Kasai 250 (1910).- Type: Thonning s.n., Ghana (holo- C).
Poa turgida Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl. 86 (1827);
Eragrostis rubiginosa Trin., Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci.St.-Petersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 1: 401 (1831);
Eragrostis ledermannii Pilg., in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 45: 210 (1910).- Type: Ledermann 4620, Cameroun (holo- B).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 387 (1972); FTEA : 223 (1974); Gram. Togo: 219, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 125, fig 27 (1992); Poac. CI: 122, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 284 (1998); Poaceae Niger: 188, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 207 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 167 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 460 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 89 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Small annual bunchgrass or isolated, 0.2-0.8 m high. Culms erect or ascending, branching near the base Culms tending to slightly compressed, with constricted dark brownish nodes. Leaves flat, linear, 4-18 cm long and 2-8 mm wide, glabrous to finely hairy above, with smooth margins, base rounded, slightly hairy with a whitened collar; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath somewhat compressed, glabrous with hairy shoulders and margins.
* Inflorescence a stiff open pyramidal panicle 6-12 cm long. Branches 4-8, stiff, up to 5 cm long and perpendicular on the central axe, sometimes glandular, with up to 7 spikelets, spikelets clustered on the branches and pedicels 0.2-0.5 mm long, usually without glands
* Spikelets ovate, straw-colored with pinkish, 3-6 mm long with a racheole up to 20 mm long and 2.5-4 mm wide; rachilla persistent. Glumes ovate, subequal, chartaceous, 1-2 mm long, sparsely pilose, acute. Lemmas orbicular, coriaceous 1.5-3 mm long, with a prominent vein at the tip, glabrous, except for a line of short rigid hairs along the lateral nerves, closely packed, broadly rounded at the apex; palea falling soon after the lemma. Anthers 3, 0.5 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm long.
Vernacular names: Gizin-pokoy (guiziga, Rippstein 2560); hudo walowol (foulfouldé, Malzy 157); paguri tcholli (foulfouldé, Vaillant 390); ngaouritcheli (foulbé, Gaston 1854).
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo.