J. Agric. Trop. Bot. Appl. 1: 60 (1954).- Type: Chevalier 5761, CAR (holo- P).
Homopogon chevalieri Stapf, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 55 : 103 (1908);
Trachypogon ledermannii Pilger, in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 48: 342 (1912).- Type: Ledermann 5586, Cameroun (holo- B).
Regional litterature: Stapf, FTA 9: 402, 409 (1919); FWTA: 473 (1972); FTEA: 709, fig 162 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 398, fig 88 (1992); Poac. CI : 502, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4: 19 (2002).
Description:
* Annual of 0.3-1 m high. Culms weak, erect, yellowish with ciliated nodes. Leaves flat or more often convolutous, 5-20 cm long and 1-4 mm wide, hairy with scabrid margins; ligule membranous, obliquous; sheaths sparcely pilose.
* Inflorescence in solitary excerted terminal racemes of 2-8 cm long, weak, rigid, long-awned; rhachis persistant, internodes ciliated with an oblique disarticulation.. Spikelets in pairs, unequally pedicllated, the lower subsessile, male or sterile; the upper fertile with a pedicels of 1.5 mm long.
* Pedicelled spikelet hermaphrodite, 7-9 mm long including the fulvously bearded pungent callus of 2 mm long. Glumes equal, chartaceous, the lower 2-keeled and scabrous towards the tip. Lower floret with a hyaline lemma only; upper lemma stipitate, hyaline, ending in a geniculate pubescent awn of 3-6 cm long; column dark brown and a yellow subule. Caryopse rounded, 4-4.5 mm long. Sub-sessile spikelets awnless or with an awn of up to 3 cm long.
Distribution West Africa: Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC and Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia.