Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1906: 341 (1906).- Type: Wight 1700, India (holo- K).
Andropogon caesius Hook. & Arn., Bot. Beechey Voy. 244 (1838);
Andropogon schoenanthus var. caesius (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Hack., Monogr. Phan. 6: 610 (1889);
Cymbopogon excavates (Hochst.) Stapf, FTA 9: 285 (1919).
Regional litterature: Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 147 (1929); FTEA: 761, fig. 179 (1982); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 328, fig. (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,4 : 77, fig (2002); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 124 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted perennial often from a knotty rootstock, 0.4-1.2 m tall. Culms wiry, often rambling. Leaves 20-35 cm long and 3-8 mm wide, glaucus, tough, smooth and glabrous, rounded or narrowed at the base; ligule a brown membrane of 1-5 mm long..
* Inflorescence a dense or lax spathate panicle of 5-20 cm long. Spatheoles lanceolate, 1-2 cm long. Racemes deflexed, in pairs, 1-1.5 cm long; rhachis fragile, internodes linear, 2.5-3 mm long, pubescent with hairs of 0.5-1 mm long; bases flattened, subequal, 0.5-1.5 mm long, pilose. One pair of homogamous spikel;ets at the base of the lower raceme.
* Sessile spikelets narrow elliptic, 3-4.5 mm long; callus obtuse, pilose. Lower glume oblong, firmly membranous, without or obscure oil streaks. Upper lemma bifid to the middle with a geniculate awn of 6-15 mm long, column distinct. Pedicelled spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, with clear closely spaced nerves.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, and C, NE, E and southern Africa.