Kew Bull. 1915: 385, text fig. (1915).- Type: Schön s.n., Sierra Leone (holo- K).
Paspalum exile Kippist in Clarke, Proc. Linn. Soc. 1: 157 (1842);
Panicum exilis (Kippist) A. Chev., Explor. Bot. Afr. Occ. Franc. 1: 726 (1920), nom. illeg.
Regional litterature: FWTA: 453 (1972); Ghana grasses: 135 (1977); Gram. Togo: 195 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 318 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 198 (2006); Poac. CI: 440, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger: 454, fig. (1999); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 165 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 135 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 455 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 80 (2012)
Description:
* Annual crop plant of 0.3-0.75 m high. Culms weak, erect or geniculately ascending, 30-80 cm long. Leaves 5-15 cm long, 3-7 mm wide; ligule a glabrous hyaline membrane.
* Inflorescence composed of 3-5 digitate racemes of 4-15 cm long; rhachis broadly winged, with rounded midrib, 0.5-1 mm wide. Spikelets in pairs or 2-4 pedicelled in cluster. Pedicels terete, unequal; tip discoid.
* Spikelets elliptic or oblong, acute, 1.7-2 mm long, persistent on plant. Lower glume absent or obscure; upper glume oblong, obtuse, 0.9 length of spikelet, 3-5 -veined, glabrous. Lower lemma elliptic, as long as spikelet, membranous, 7 -veined, with equidistant or unevenly spaced veins, glabrous; upper lemma elliptic, 1.7-2 mm long; cartilaginous, pallid, or grey, 3 -veined, margins flat covering most of the palea.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon.
Distribution world-wide: Introduced in the Caribean.