Sp. Pl.: 66 (1753).- Type: Europe (holo- LINN).
Aira caryophyllea Linn. var. latigluma (Steud.) C.E.Hubb., FTA 10: 88 (1937).- Type: Schimper 546, Ethiopia (iso- K,WAG).
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 87 (1937); FTEA: 84 (1970); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,1: 79, fig (1971); FWTA 3(2): 372 (1972); Gram. Cameroun: 69, fig. 14 (1992) Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 37, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 117 (2015);
Description:
* Delicate, annual of 3–40 cm high. Culms solitary or loosely tufted, erect or geniculate. Leaves filiform or subsetaceous, mostly 1–5 cm long and up to 1 mm wide; ligule triangular, 3-5 mm long, becoming lacerate.
* Inflorescence an open panicle, ovate to oblong, 1–12 cm long; branches bare at the base, the spikelets in little clusters towards the tips; pedicels 3/4–3 1/2 times as long as the spikelet, pear-shaped at the tip.
* Spikelets ovate, 1.8–2.7 mm long, often obtuse, shining silvery and purple-tinged. Glumes as long as spikelet, ovate, obtuse to subacute. Lemmas narrowly ovate, 1.2–2 mm long, scabrid above, acuminately bilobed, with a geniculate awn 2–3 mm long arising from below the middle, or rarely the lower floret awnless; callus minute, bearded, glabrous or with sparse short hairs.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, C, E and southern Africa, Europe; introduced in Australia and the Americas.