Flora 38: 200 (1855).- Type: Schimper 2285, Ethiopia (- P,K), Schimper 1229, Ethiopia (iso- W,P,L,BR,K).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 147 (1970); FWTA: 379 (1972); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea: 77, (1996); Pl. Mauritanie: 280 (1998); Poac. Niger: 156 , fig. (1999); Pl. Burkina Faso: 71 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 119 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose annual. 20-60 cm long. Culms with internodes antrorsely scabrous and distally glabrous; nodes pubescent. Leaves 10-20 cm long and 2-4 mm wide, scabrous; ligule a fringe of long hairs; sheaths glabrous, keeled, oral with long hairs.
* Inflorescence an open, lanceolate, interrupted panicle 8-30 cm long. Spikelets solitary, pedicelled.
* Spikelets lanceolate, subterete, 6-17 mm long; callus elongated, 1 mm long, bearded, obtuse. Glumes subequal, persistent, chartaceous, lanceolate, smooth or asperulous; lower glume 6-17 mm long, setaceously attenuate; upper glume 5-15 mm long, 2 -fid, mucronate. Lemma elliptic, subterete, 7-13 mm long, coriaceous, keeled, scabrous in lines, involute and covering most of palea, with a persistent 3-branched awn. Awn with a 15-30 mm long limb and lateral awns of 5-30 mm long.