Fl. Capensis 7: 376 (1898).- Type: Schimper 76, Ethiopia (holo P, iso- K, L, WAG); Quartin Dillon (syn- P).
Cynodon ternatus A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 405 (1851).
Regional litterature: FI. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 33 (1934); FWTA: 452 (1972); Ghana grasses: 138 (1977); FTEA: 630, fig. 146 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 316, fig. (1992); Poac. CI: 432, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 284, fig (1995); Fl. Guinée: 456 (2009); Fl. Burkina Faso: 80 (2012); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 126 (2015).
Description:
* Annual bunchgrass with slender erect culms rising from a geniculate base to 0.6 m. Leaves linear to linear lanceolate, 5-25(- 40) cm long, 3-8 mm wide, flat and glabrous with a fine indistinct midrib, margins slightly scabrid; base rounded and sparsely hairy; ligule a short pale glabrous membrane; sheath long glabrous.
* Inflorescence 2-11 racemes erect or ascending, subdigitate on a short common axis. Racemes slender, grey green, 3-23 cm long. Spikelets densely crowded along one side of a narrow ribbon-like rachis, in threes; pedicels unequal, at tip with 0.2-1 mm long hairs.
* Spikelets small, narrow pointed, minutely hairy, elliptic, 1.8-2.7 mm long, with hairs extending 0.2-0.8 mm beyond apex. Lower glume obscure; upper glume elliptic, 0.66-0.8 length of spikelet, 3 -veined; upper glume acute, pubescent with clavate hairs. Lower lemma elliptic, acute, as long as spikelet, 5(-9) -veined, with unevenly spaced veins (3 central veins approximate), hairy between veins (generally or in stripes) with clavate hairs 0.2-0.8 mm long; upper lemma elliptic, acute, 1.8-2.7 mm long, cartilaginous, dark brown or black, margins flat, covering most of palea.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Asia; introduced in C America.