Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s., 26:67 (1919).- Type: Bovone 62, Zaïre (holo- TO).
Regional litterature: FTA 10: 9 (1937); FWTA: 420 (1972); FTEA: 411 (1974); Gram. Cameroun: 365, fig. 77 (1992).
Description:
* Perennial herb of 30-60 cm long. Culms wiry, prostate or ascending. Leaves lanceolate, reflexed, 1-4 cm long and 1-4 mm wide; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheaths longer than internode, covering it.
* Inflorescence an open lanceolate panicle of 5-10 cm long; branches ascending, up to 3 mm long. Spikelets solitary at the end of the pedicels; pedicels pubescent with hairs 0.5-1 mm long.
* Spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, 5-6 mm long, finely hairy with some tubercle-based hairs. Glumes chartaceous, the lower 2-3 mm long, the upper lanceolate, as long as spikelet. Lower lemma ressembling upper glume, barren, with palea; upper lemma 2-2.5 mm long, with lateral tufts of hairs, bifid and 3-awned, the central awn geniculate, 6-12 mm long, the lateral ones 1.5-3.5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Nigeria, Cameroon.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, DRC, Uganda, Tanzania, C and southern Africa.