Flora 38: 224 (1855).- Type: Schimper in Herb. Buchinger 772, Ethiopia, Semien (holo- STR).
Eragrostis horizontalis Peter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 40: Anh.: 107 (1930).- Type: Greenway 784, Tanzania (iso- K);
Eragrostis trichophora Coss & Durieu, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 2: 311 (1855);
Eragrostis rigidior Pilg., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 48: 347 (1912).- Type: Grossart, Namibia (holo- B, destr.).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 391 (1972); Ghana grasses: 151 (1977); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 125, fig (1995); Poac. Niger: 194, 195, fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 129 (2015).
Description:
* Decumbent and geniculate or densely tufted annual or perennial, 0.3-0.9 m high. Culms erect or geniculate, a glandular ring just below each node, sometimes rooting and branching at the dark lower nodes. Leaves linear, 10-15 cm long and 3 mm broad, frequently rolled inwards, glabrous with scabrid margins, base slightly hairy, barely rounded; ligule an inconspicuous fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous with slightly hairy shoulders, normally dotted with crateriform glands. Roots well developed, usually encrusted with sand particles adhering to the hairs.
* Inflorescence a well branched dense linear or delicate spreading panicle, narrowly ovate, 12-30 cm long and 2-6 cm broad; lowermost branches whorled, 5-8 cm long, the lower part without spikelets; spikelets born on fine hair-like scabrid pedicels.
* Spikelets flattened, dark grey-green, 4-12-flowered; florets appressed to the rhachilla; when the lemmas falling, the paleas persisting a little longer, fragile above, 3-8 mm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide. Glumes lanceolate, early deciduous, acute, 1-1.5 mm long. Lemmas narrowly oblong, 1.5-1.7 mm long, obtuse (often subacute in profile). Anthers relatively long, pallid 3, 0.8-1 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.5-0.7 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Ghana, Niger, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and Eritrea, E and southern Africa, introduced elsewhere.