Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew: 1928: 39 (1928).- Type: Stolz 960, Tanzania (iso- K,WAG).
Cymbopogon stolzii Pilg., Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 54: 286 (1917), non Hyparrhenia stolzii Stapf (1918);
Hyparrhenia claessensii Robyns, Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 180 (1929).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 807 (1982); Fl. Rwanda: 292 (1988); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 345, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca: 117 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 134 (2015).
Description:
* Rhizomatous perennial, forming lax tufts of 0.3-0.6 m high; rhizomes clad in scaly white cataphylls. Culms usually rather thin and slender, 1-2 mm diameter, weakly ascending or untidily straggling. Leaves lanceolate, short, 5-15 cm long and 2-4 mm wide, light green, glabrous; ligule 1-2 mm long; sheaths glabrous.
* Inflorescence an open and scanty spathate panicle, often with only 10-20 raceme-pairs, but sometimes denser with more numerous pairs. Spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, 2-3 cm long, glabrous, reddish brown; peduncles 0.9-3 cm long from ½ to slightly exceeding the spatheole, pilose with yellow or sometimes white hairs towards the tip, excerted from the side of the spatheole with or without a sinuous hook. Racemes not or tardily deflexed, 1-1.5 cm long, (4-)6-7 awned per pair; bases subequal, up to 0.5 mm long or unequal with the upper terete and up to 1.5 mm long, typically with a scarious rim up to 0.2 mm longor rarely with a short appendage up to 0.5 mm long. One homogamous pair at the base of the lower raceme only.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 4 mm long, glabrous or white puberulous; callus oblong or sometimes square, 0.4-0.7 mm long, obtusely rounded at the base. Lower glume lanceolate, coriaceous, keel-less except near tip. Lower lemma lanceolate, hyaline; upper lemma linear, membranous, bifid with a geniculate awn of 0.7-1.7 cm long from the sinus, column twisted, puberulous with 0.2-0.4 mm long hairs. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, 4-4.5 mm long, purple; glumes membranous, glabrous, awnles or with an awn-point up to 1.5 mm long. Homogamous spikelets lanceolate, 4-5.5 mm long, glumes glabrous except for the ciliolate margins. Anthers 3; stigmas 2.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, C, E and southern Africa