Kew Bull. 1934: 431 (1934).- Type: Drège 4236, South Africa (lecto- B, iso- K,P); Drège s.n., South Africa, Omsamwubo (syn- K,P).
Tristachya simplex Nees, Fl Afr. Austr.: 269 (1841) ;
Arundinella simplex (Nees) Roberty, Bull. IFAN, 17: 56 (1955);
Trichopteryx camerunensis Stapf, Kew Bull. 1897: 296 ( 1897).- Type: Mann 1346, 2080, Cameroun, Cameroon mts (syn- K);
Loudetia camerunensis (Stapf) Hubbard, Kew Bull. 1934: 431 (1934);
Trichopteryx nigritiana Stapf, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1897: 297 (1897).- Type: Barter s.n., Nigeria, Ieba (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 25 (1937); FI. Gabon 5: 262 (1962); FWTA: 419 (1972); Ghana grasses: 181 (1977); Gram. Togo: 247 (1983);FTEA: 419 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 377, fig. 82 (1992); Poac. CI: 246, fig. (1995) ; Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 288, fig (1995); Poac. Niger: 333, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 216, fig. (2006); Fl. Guinée: 465 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 96 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Densely tufted erect perennial bunchgrass of 0.3-1.5 m tall; basal sheaths usually woolly tomentose. Culms erect firm slender; nodes bearded with one or two rings of white hairs. Leaves frequently deflexed from the culm, long linear, flat or rolling inwards, 10-30 cm long and 2-5 mm wide; usually fairly hairy on both surfaces with scabrid margins; base narrowed, sometimes almost false petiolate; ligule short membrane with stiffly hairy white fringe; sheath usually hairy, the basal ones very hairy and tending to split and accumulates into a mass of fibers and woolly tomentose.
* Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle, linear to ovate, 10-30 cm long, branches more or less verticellate, bearing juvenile spikelets at emergence; spikelets golden brown, pedicelled.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 8-13 mm long, glabrous or pubescent with tubercle-based hairs on both sides of nerves; callus 0.8-1 mm long, pubescent, 2-toothed. Glumes chartaceous, dark brown, obtuse; lower glume ovate, 3-5 mm long; upper glume lanceolate, 8-13 mm long. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate, 8-13 mm long, acute; upper lemma oblong, 4-7 mm long, coriaceous, pubescent, 2 -fid with triangular lobes of 0.3-1 mm long with geniculate awn with twisted column 25-50 mm long from a sinus.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, Ethiopia and Uganda, and E and southern Africa.
Note: L. simplex is very variable vegetatively, in panicle shape and in hairiness of the glumes. The habit and wooly basal sheaths are similar to those of L. flavida. In Cameroon L. camerunensis is very distinct with large dark brown spikelets, but in East Africa it integrates with L. simplex.