Fl. Afr. Austr.: 104 (1841).- Type: Drège 1672, 4346, South Africa (syn- P; isosyn- K), several syntypes.
Sorghum eucomys (Nees) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 791 (1891).
A. eucomys ssp. huillensis (Rendle) Sales
Fl. Zambes. 10 (4): 62 (2002).- Type: Mundy s.n., Zimbabwe (lecto- K), Welwitsch 2693, Angola (syn- K).
Andropogon huillensis Rendle, Cat. Afr. Pl. 2: 146 (1899);
Andropogon laxatus Stapf, FTA 9: 237 (1919).
Regional litterature: FTA 9: 237 (1919); Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 125 (1929); FI. Gabon 5: 166 (1962); FTEA: 775, fig 180/2 (1986); Gram. Cameroun: 430, fig 95 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 322, fig (1995); Fl. Zambes. 10 (4): 62 (2002).
Description:
* Slender tufted hardy perennial, sometimes with rhizomes, 0.3-0.9 m high. Culms erect with lateral branches. Leaves folded, pale green to reddish, 4-25 cm long and 1-3 mm wide, abruptly acute; ligule a ciliolate membrane of 0.5-1 mm long; sheaths keeled, with oral hairs.
* Inflorescence in a spathate panicle with terminal and axillary digitate racemes. Racemes with 3-5 together, sinuous, loose, 2-5 cm long, spaced with pairs of spikelets, copiously silky villous. Rhachis fragile; internodes and pedicels filiform, arcuate, 4-5 mm long, plumose with spreading hairs 3-8 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet reduced to a sterile glume of up to 3 mm long; sessile spikelet 3.5-5.5 mm long.
* Sessile spikelets linear lanceolate, (2-3) 4-5 mm long, including a short truncate, bearded callus. Lower glume linear or lancceolate, concave, depressed thin and nerveless between the dorsal keels, glabrous, wingless; upper glume acute to mucronate, awnless. Upper lemma lanceolate, hyaline, bilobed in the upper third, from the sinus a weakly geniculate, fine awn of 12-18 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet much surpressed to a barren pedicel, acuminate or shortly awned.