Bot. Nuevo Milenio: 29 (2002).- Type: Drège s.n., South Africa (iso- K).
Agrostis lachnantha Nees, Index Seminum (WROCL) 1834: 3 (1834).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 106 (1970); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 49, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 117 (2015).
Description:
* Annual or short-lived loosely tufted perennial of 30-90 cm high, sometimes rooting from the lower nodes; culms erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves linear, flat, 7-20 cm long and 2-4 mm wide, flaccid, light green; ligule a glabrous membrane; lower sheaths purplish.
* Inflorescence a contracted oblong panicle of 5-30 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, light green, sometimes purple-tinged, with the spikelets clustered along the ascending branches.
* Spikelets elliptic, 2-2.5 mm long, gaping, disarticulating below each fertile floret; callus bearded. Glumes persistent, similar, exceeding the florets, lanceolate, shiny; scabrous, gaping and acute; lower glume lanceolate, 2-2.5 mm long; upper glume, 2-2.5 mm long. Lemma oblong, 1.5-2 mm long, hyaline, silky villous or pilose with hairs 0.5-1 mm long, obtuse, muticous or mucronate; awn subapical, up to 0.5 mm long. Anthers 3, 0.5-0.8 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and Eritrea, Tanzania, C and southern Africa, Yemen.
Note: L. lachnantha is separated from Agrostis by its 3-nerved lemma whereas in Agrostis species lemmas with 5-nerved lemmas.