Kew Bull. 24: 187 (1970).- Type: de Wet 9224, Ethiopia, Jimma, cultivated in USA (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 403 (1972); FTEA: 319 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 176, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 235 (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 124 (2015).
Description:
* Stoloniferous mat-forming perennial without rhizomes of 0.25-1 m high; stolons stout, woody, with long internodes lying flat on the ground. Culms becoming very robust and woody. Leaves flat, 5-25 cm long and 3-7 mm wide, tough and glaucous, scaberulous; ligule a ciliolate rim of 0.3 mm long.
* Inflorescence composed of 5-20 racemes, digitate in 2-5 whorls, rarely one. Racemes stiff, red or purple, 4-8 cm long; rhachis flattened. Spikelets packing broadside, 2-rowed.
* Spikelets ovate, 2-3 mm long, compressed strongly, disarticulating below each fertile floret. Glumes similar, herbaceous, 1.5-2.5 mm long, keeled, acute. Lemma ovate, as long as spikelet, cartilaginous, red or purple, shortly pubescent on the keel; palea glabrous.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan, introduced in Benin and Nigeria.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda, Burundi, E and southern Africa.