Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, n.s. 76: 165 (1931).- Type: Schimper 80, Ethiopia (iso- K).
Andropogon insculptus A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 458 (1851);
Amphilophis insculpta (A. Rich.) Stapf, FTA 9: 176 (1919).
Regional litterature: Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 106 (1929); FTEA: 720 (1982); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 306, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 47 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 120 (2015).
Description: Caespitose perennial 0.2-2 m high. Culms either decumbent and rambling or developing into stout woody stolons, branching and rooting at the nodes; nodes barbate with white hairs. Leaves 4-30 cm long and 2-8 mm wide, glabrous, occasionally with tubercle-based hairs below, rough on the margins; ligule membranous; sheaths glabrous, tightly clasping the internodes, barbate at the mouth.
* Inflorescence of 3-20 subdigitate racemes; main axis up to 3 cm long. Raceme 2-10 cm long; rhachis internodes and pedicels pilose on the margins, the hairs up to 3 mm towards the tip.
* Sessile spikelet , narrowly elliptic, 3-4.5 mm long; callus 0.5 mm long, barbate, obtuse. Lower glume with a deep pit on the back just above the middle, glabrous or pubescent to shortly pilose below, shortly ciliate on the keels towards the apex; upper glume narrowly lanceolate, sharply carinate, glabrous. Lower floret empty, its lemma 3.5 mm long, broadly ovate; upper floret epaleate, the lemma 2 mm long, stipitiform, awned from the apex with a glabrous awn of 15- 25 mm long. Anthers 1.8 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet 5 mm long with 0-4 pits, ciliate along the keels; upper glume lanceolate, delicate, ciliate on the margins; inferior lemma 3 mm long, oblong, truncate at the apex.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, ?Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Tunesia, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Greece, southern Asia.