Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 776 (1891).- Type: Hb. Linn. 1217-12, India (holo- LINN).
Cenchrus granularis Linn., Mant. 2, app. 575 (1771);
Manisurus granularis (Linn.) Linn.f., Nov. Gram. Gen.: 37 (1779);
Mnesithea granularis (Linn.) Koning & Sosef, Blumea 31(2): 295 (1986);
Rottboellia granularis (L.) Roberty, Boissiera 9 : 79 (1960).
Regional litterature: FTA 9 : 57 (1917); Fl. Gabon 5:126 (1962); Fl. Nigeria 93, fig. 47 (1970); FWTA: 506 (1972); Ghana grasses: 158, fig. 42 (1977) ; FTEA: 849, fig. 200 (1982); Gram. Togo: 222, fig. (1983); Poac. CI: 660, fig. (1985); Pl. Mauritanie: 311 (1989); Gram. Cameroun: 530, fig. 119 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 363, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 178, fig (1999); Poac. Niger : 645, fig. (1999); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 461 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 90 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 131 (2015).
Description:
* Highly branched slightly tufted erect annual of 0.3-0.9 m tall with leaves and sometimes culms conspicuously hairy all over. Culms green to purplish, grooved opposite the emergent branches, sometimes prop-rooted at the base. Leaves linear-lanceolate, flat to partially folded and keeled, 12-20 cm long and 7-12 mm broad, with finely recessed midrib and hairy throughout, base broadly rounded, clasping the culm; ligule a short truncate ciliate membrane; sheath slightly compressed, hairy throughout and keeled. Roots well developed.
* Inflorescence in false panicles, composed of numerous solitary spike-like spatheolate terminal racemes, often with several flowering branches clustered together. Racemes 12-17 mm long with a fragile rhachis and a typical zig zag structure of the sessile spikelets. Internodes and pedicels fused.
* Spikelets heteromorph. Sessile spikelets globular with tubercles of 1.2-2 mm long, yellow green. Lower glume coriaceous; upper glume ovate and obtuse, verrucose, cartilaginous, narrowly crested at the apex, in a cavity of the internode. Lemma and paleas hyalines, smaller than glumes. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, 1.7-2 mm long, glumes herbaceous with prominent nerves and membranous margins.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, 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: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and NE, C, E and southern Africa, Asia; introduced in the Americas.