Bull. Agr. Congo Belge 13: 342 (1922).- Type: Vanderyst 6095, 6400, 7672, DRC (syn- BR).
Cynodon nlemfuensis var. robustus Clayton & Harlan, Kew Bull., 24: 189 (1970).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 403 (1972); FTEA: 321 (1974); Ghana grasses: 131 (1977); Gram. Togo: 189 (1983); Poicelot, Poac. CI: 182, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 175, fig. (1995); Poac. CI:182, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 237 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 196, fig. (2006); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 124 (2015).
Description:
* Vigorous decumbent perennial spreading rapidly and mat-forming, 0.3-0.6 m high, without rhizomes. Culms geniculate or erect, 2-3 mm diameter, soft and easily crushed, rooting from stolons at the nodes, occasionally with bulbous structures at the nodes consisting of swollen sheaths; internodes 5-13 cm, yellow. Leaves linear, glabrous, scaberulose, 5-16 cm long and 2-6 mm broad, finely nerved with slightly scabrid margins; base passing straight into glabrous sheath; ligule a rim with a ciliolate fringe of fine hairs, 0.3 mm long.
* Inflorescence large, lax with 4 -12 spreading digitate terminal racemes. Racemes unilateral, 4-7 cm long, rachis flattened with spikelets appressed broadside to rachis in regular 2 rows.
* Spikelets ovate, laterally compressed, 2-3 mm long, green often pigmented with purplish red. Glumes similar, shorter than spikelet, lanceolate, 1-2 mm long. Lemma ovate, laterally compressed, 2-3 mm long, cartilaginous, green or purplish, keeled, 3 -veined, midnerve silky pubescent or ciliate; palea glabrous.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan, introduced in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo and E and southern Africa; introduced in Australia and the Americas.
Note: More robust species than C. dactylon but without subterrean parts difficult to separate.