Fl. Atlant. 2: 388 (1799).- Type: Desfontaines, Tunisia (holo- P).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 350 (1974); Fl. Sahara: 176 (1977); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 480, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 161, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 288 (1998); Poac. Niger: 260, fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 150 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose perennial of 20-40 cm high; basal innovations flabellate. Culms erect, with 3-4 black nodes. Leaves tough, glaucous, tightly folded, 2-10 cm long and 1-3 mm wide, pilose on the lower margins; ligule a ciliolate membrane.
* Inflorescence composed of paired racemes of 2.5-8 cm long and 6-10 mm wide. Racemes appressed back to back, erect, unilateral, pale but often violet-tinged. Rhachis angular; spikelets packing broadside and 2 -rowed.
* Spikelets 3-4 mm long with 1-3 fertile florets and diminished florets at the apex, disarticulating above glumes but not between florets; callus pilose. Glumes persistent, exceeding or reaching apex of florets, membranous, thinner than fertile lemma; gaping; lower glume lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, acuminate; upper glume ovate, 3-4 mm long, mucronate. Lemmas ovate, 3-3.5 mm long, coriaceous, keeled; midvein and margins ciliate with conspicuous spreading hairs of 2-3 mm long and with a subapical awn of 2-10 mm long; sterile lemmas 3, barren, in a cuneate clump. Caryopsis plump. Elliptic, shallowly trigonous.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and NE Africa, Uganda, W Asia.