Sp. Gram. Stip. 141 (1842).- Type: Cuming 671, Philippines (holo- LE, iso- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 379 (1972); Gram. Cameroun: 96(1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 80 (1995); Fl. Guinëe: 450 (2009); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 119 (2015);
Description:
* Annual with solitary culms or caespitose, 8-30 cm high. Culm internodes glabrous. Leaves cauline, narrow, 2-7 cm long and 0.5-1 mm wide; ligule a fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence an open, elliptic, effuse panicle of 3-8 cm long with capillary branches. Spikelets solitary, pedicelled.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 2-2.5 mm long; callus brief, pilose, obtuse. Glumes lanceolate, membranous, mucronate, tinged with red; lower glume 1.5-2 mm long; upper glume 2-2.5 mm long. Lemma elliptic, 1.5-1.7 mm long, coriaceous, scaberulous, convolute, acute, with a persistent 3-branched awn, branching from the tip without articulation; awn with 4.5-6 mm long limb and lateral awns of 2.5-4 mm long.