Nomencl. Bot., ed. 2, 1: 564 (1840).- Type: Bonpland 4173, Ecuador (iso- P).
Poa patula Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 158 (1816);
Poa tenuifolia A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 425 (1850).- Type: Schimper 92, Ethiopia, Adwa (holo- P, iso- K);
Eragrostis tenuifolia (A. Richard) Steudel, Syn. PI. Glum. 1:268 (1854).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 37 (1970); FWTA: 391 (1972); FTEA: 238 (1974); Gram. Cameroun: 122 (1992); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 82 (1999); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 122, fig (1995); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Spreading perennial, 10-90 cm high. Culms erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves linear, flat or involute, 4-30 cm long, 1-4 mm wide; ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.2-0.5 mm long; sheaths pilose along the margins, often glandular above the nodes.
* Inflorescence an elliptic panicle, 5-28 cm long and 3-5 cm wide; branches erect or spreading, up to 9 cm long; axils hairy or not; pedicels slender often with an annular gland about halfway.
* Spikelets linear, laterally compressed, dark olive green, 4-16 mm long, 5-16-flowered, the florets spreading to give a serrate outline, disarticulating from the base, the lemmas falling, leaving the persistent paleas. Glumes small, lanceolate; lower glume 0.4-0.8 mm long; upper glume 0.8-1.7 mm long. Lemmas 1.6-2.5 mm long, keeled, 3 -nerved. Anthers 3, 0.5 mm long. Grain oblong, truncate, 1 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Asia, introduced elsewhere.