Kew Bull. 4: 345 (1949).- Type : Eyles 2190, Zimbabwe (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 386 (1972); FTEA: 207 (1974); Gram. Togo: 212 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 116 (1992); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 72, fig (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 129 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual of 15-45 cm tall. Culms erect or geniculately ascending. Leaves flat, 2-10 cm long and 1-4 mm wide; ligule fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence a dense linear-elliptic contracted panicle, not lobed or woolly of 4-22 cm long and 5-25 mm wide; branches up to 4 cm long, with or without glands.
* Spikelets flat, 5-10 florets, purplish, 2-4 mm long and 1-2.5 mm wide, breaking up from the apex downwards. Glumes similar, shorter than the spikelet, 1.2-1.8 mm long, acute, 1-veined. Lemmas narrowly elliptic in side view, 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous on the keel; palea hairs about as long as the width of the floret, hairs 0.4-0.6 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.4-0.6 mm long.
Vernacular names: Shi a dengweze (kapsiki, Leeuwenberg & Van Beek 10485).
Distribution West Africa: Togo, Nigeria, Cameroun, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC and Congo, Tanzania, southern Africa.