Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 336 (1897).- Type: Baumann 275, Nigeria (syn K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 387 (1972); Ghana grasses: 150 (1977); Gram. Togo: 213 (1983); Poac. CI: 118, fig. (1995).
Description:
* Coarse erect perennial bunchgrass of 0.3-1 m high; culms yellow-green, usually simple. Leaves linear, flat, 10-30 cm long and 3-9 mm wide, glabrous with slightly scabrid margins, distinctly striated on the lower surface; base slightly narrowed with a dense tuft of hairs in the axils; ligule a dense fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous with densely hairy shoulders and margins sometimes hair-fringed, distinctly striated, violette-tinged.
* Inflorescence a stiffly spreading panicle, 10-20 cm long, branches few, up to 6-8 cm long, with widely spaced large spikelets; axis and branches covered with irregularly spaced glandular dots, just visible at naked eye.
* Spikelets flattened, ovate, hairy, straw-colored with pink or purplish, 5-7 mm long and 4-6.5 mm wide. Glumes lanceolate, acute, 2.5-3 mm long, pubescent with 1 mm long hairs. Lemmas 3-3.5 mm long, acute, glandular on keels and nerves, stiff hairy on the back and near the margins. Achene brown, elliptical, 1.4 mm long and 0.8 mm wide.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria.