Kew Bull., Add. Ser. 2: 57 (1969).- Type: Rose Innes GC 32385, Ghana (holo- K).
Hyparrhenia chrysargyrea auct., FWTA ed. 1,2: 591 (1936), non Stapf.
Regional litterature: FWTA: 491 (1972); Ghana grasses: 165 (1977); Gram. Togo: 233 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 472, fig. (1992); Poac. CI: 5946, fig. (1995); Fl. Guinée: 462 (2009).
Description:
* Coarse erect short-lived perennial with culms up to 1-2.5 m; dense dark pads of purplish red hairs on bases of stems and their enveloping sheaths, often persistent in the soil surface after death of the plant; base sometimes thickened. Culms 2-5 mm diam. Leaves 20-75 cm long and 2-6 mm wide, stiff; margins scabrous; ligule a brown eciliate membrane of 2-3 mm long.
* Inflorescence a spathate panicle of 30-90 cm long; spatheole linear or lanceolate, 3.5-7 cm long, red; peduncle nodding, pilose above with paired panicles. Racemes erect, 2.5-3 cm long, with 8-14 awns per pair; rachis fragile, hairs white or yellow; internodes linear, flat. Raceme-bases filiform, unequal, the longer 2-3 mm long, glabrous or pubescent with rufous hairs. One pair of homogamous at the basis of the lower raceme, none in upper raceme.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 4.5-6 mm long; callus cuneate, 0.4-0.8(- 1) mm long, pubescent, base truncate or obtuse, hairs white or yellow. Lower glume purple, not shiny, with golden hairs. Upper lemma with a geniculate awn, 20-35 mm long with twisted column, fulvously pubescent with 0.2 mm long hairs. Pedicelled and homogamous spikelets lanceolate, 5-6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Congo.