Boissiera 9: 163 (1960).- Type: Delile, Egypt (iso- K).
Andropogon foveolatus Delile, Descr. Egypte, Hist. Nat. 2: 160 (1813);
Sorghum foveolatum (Delile) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 791 (1891);
Eremopogon foveolatus (Delile) Stapf, FTA 9: 183 (1917).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 471 (1972); Fl. Sahara: 154 (1977); FTEA : 723 (1982) ; Fl. Mauritania: 410, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 308, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 306 (1998); Poac. Niger : 530, fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 125 (2015).
Description:
* Densely caespitose perennial with short rhizomes of 0.2-1 m high. Culms weak, ascending, branched, glabrous with ciliated nodes. Leaves 1-15 cm long and 1-3 mm wide, flat or convolute, pubescent with tuberecle based hairs and scabrous margins; ligule a ciliated membrane.
* Inflorescence in a simple raceme of 1.5-4.5 cm long. Raceme with paired spikelets and 0-1 pair of homogamous spikelets at the base; internodes and pedicels filiform;
* Sessile spikelets elliptical, 2.5-4 mm long, yellow but slightly reddish with a short ciliated callus. Glumes equal, the lower cartilaginose, glabrous and glossy, obtuse, 2-keeled, with a small circular depression (fovéole) in the upper third; upper glume papery, boat-shaped. Lower lemma hyaline; upper lemma reduced to cartilaginous stipe, ectended in weak, scabrid awn of 12-18 mm long. Carypse reddish brown, oblong, 2 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and NE, E Africa, S Asia.