Naturw. Reise, Mossambique 6(2): 563 (1864).- Type: Peters, Mozambique (?).
Andropogon serratus Thunb. var. versicolor (Anderss.) Hack., Monogr. Phan. 6: 522 (1889).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 139 (1917); FTEA: 729 (1982); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 25, fig (2002); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Annual or short-lived perennial of 0.25-2.5 m. high. Culms solitary or tufted, bearded at the nodes with a conspicuous ciclet of spreading hairs. Leaves 10-30 cm. long and 3-10 mm. wide; ligule a ciliate membrane.
* Inflorescence a narrowly oblong panicle of 5-25 cm. long; primary branches whorled, simple (rarely the longer branched), loosely ascending and tipped by a raceme. Racemes bearing 3-7 pairs of spikelets each; internodes and pedicels filiform, 3.5-5 mm long, ciliate with pallid or brownish hairs.
* Sessile spikelet elliptic-oblong, 5-7 mm long; callus bearded with long pallid to rufous hairs. Lower glume coriaceous, glossy, reddish brown to black at maturity, no keels, glabrous to loosely pilose. Lower lemma barren, ciliolate on the margins; upper lemma oblong, 3-6 mm long, hyaline, bifid with a geniculate awn of 25-40 mm long from the sinus. Pedicelled spikelet well-developed, male, linear to lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, greenish, muticous.
Note: Similar with S. purpureo-sericeum and may represent just variants of a single species. Differences derive from their spikelet length (shorter in versicolor), their apparent inability to hybridize (Garber op. cit.) and their different geographic distribution.
Distribution West Africa: Chad.
Distribution world-wide: NE, East and southern Africa, Oman.