FTA 9: 336 (1919).- Type: Schimper 911, Ethiopia (syn- P, isosyn- BR L,K); Schimper 937, Ethiopia (syn- P, isosyn- BR,BM).
Andropogon tamba Steud., Syn. Pl.Glumac. 1: 385 (1854).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 810 (1982); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 347, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca: 122 (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 134 (2015).
Description:
* Stout tufted perennial of 1-2 m high. Culms erect, up up to 4 mm in diameter at the base. Leaves 20-40(-80) cm long and 3-7 mm wide, glabrous, stiff and harsh, scabrid on the margins and scaberulous on the nerves, strongly glaucous, rarely soft and green; ligule an eciliate membrane of 2-4 mm long; sheaths glabrous, silky pubescent at the base.
* Inflorescence a linear-oblong lax spatheolate panicle of 30-60 cm long. Spatheoles 2.6-4 cm long, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely pilose, turning glaucous brown; peduncles nodding, 2-3 cm long, pilose above with white hairs. Racemes paired, 1.5 cm long, 5-8-awned per pair, exserted laterally, tardily deflexed; raceme-bases subequal, the superior up to 1 mm long, flattened, stiffly barbate, the apex produced into a lobed scarious appendage of 0.2-0.5 mm long. One single pair of homogamous spikelets at the base of the inferior raceme, none at the upper raceme.
* Sessile spikelets lanceolate, 4-5.5 mm long; callus 0.5 mm long, cuneate, pubescent, subacute at the apex. Lower glume oblong-lanceolate, villous with white hairs, coriaceous, becoming dark purplish-grey at maturity, keel-less except near the tip. Upper lemma linear, membranous, bifid with a geniculate awn of 16-25 mm long from the sinus, the column shortly pubescent with tawny hairs of 0.2-0.4 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, 7-8 mm long, villous with white hairs, muticous or with a short bristle up to 2 mm long at the apex; pedicel-tooth obscure. Homogamous spikelets 8-9 mm long, villous with white hairs, muticous.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan, South Sudan
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Ethiopia; Eritrea, Kenya and southern Africa.