Mém. Soc. Bot. France 8: 98 (1908).- Type: Chevalier 232, Mali (holo- P, iso- K).
Coelorachys afraurita (Stapf) Stapf, FTA 9: 80 (1917);
Mnesithea afraurita (Stapf) Koning & Sosef, Blumea 31 (2): 290 (1986).
Regional litterature: FI. Nigeria: 89 (1970); FWTA: 509 (1972); FTEA: 842, fig. 197 (1982); Gram. Togo: 179 (1983); Poac. CI: 668, fig. (1985); Gram. Cameroun: 529, pl. 117 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 361, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 172, fig (1999); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 135 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 453 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 77 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 123 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted perennial of 1-4 m high.Culms robust, compressed, straw coloured and branched in the upper part. Leaves linear, flat or folded, papery, glabrous, 0.3-1 m long and 4-12 mm wide; ligule a denticulate membrane; sheaths glabrous, compressed and keeld, the lower ones imbricated.
* Inflorescence in a copious spathate panicle with solitary racemes. Racemes spiciformous, 2-7 cm long, dorsally flattened with imbricate spikelets. Internodes and pedicels cuneiformous, glabrous.
* Sessile spikelet narrow-oblong, compressed, 3-4.5 mm long. Basis of the callus, internode and pedicel fused together in a ring. Lower glume thinly coriaceous, 2-keeled and winged above; upper glume papery and keeled. Lower floret neuter with a lanceolate, hyaline lemma; upper lemma and palea hyaline, lanceolate. Pedicelled spikelets male or neutral, lanceolate, 2.5-4 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Burundi, E and southern Africa.