Mus. Senck. 2: 140 (1837).- Type: Rüppell s.n., Eritrea, Massoua (holo- FR).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 371 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 151, fig (1995); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 147 (2015).
Description:
* Robust perennial in dense tussocks, 1-3 m high, arising from underground rhizomes and sometimes with stolons. Culms erect, stout, 3.5-8 mm diameter. Leaves up to 60 cm long and 8 mm wide, flat with harshly scabrous margins, tip filiformous; ligule a fringe of hairs of 1 mm long; sheath glabrous with short hairy margins, at the shoulders long hairs.
* Inflorescence in a linear-lanceolate panicle of 25-35 cm long and 2-4 cm wide, contracted about the primary branches. Branches numerous, 3-10 cm long, spike-like, bearing closely appressed spikelets from the base, glabrous in the axils.
* Spikelets narrowly elliptic-oblong, 1.7-2.3 mm long, greenish yellow to pallid grey-green. Glumes reaching the apex of the spikelet; lower glume lanceolate, 4/5 as long as spikelet, 1.2-2.3 mm long; upper glume narrowly ovate, acute as long as spikelet or lemma slightly longer, scaberulous upward. Lemma ovate, similar to the upper glume, mid-green, 1-veined. Anthers 3, 1.2-1.4 mm long. Caryopsis narrowly oblong, tetragonal, 0.7-1 mm long.
Note: The species has frequently been confused with S robustus, a smaller coastal grass from western Africa, a somewhat intermediate between S. consimilis and S. virginicus.
Distribution West Africa: Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and NE, E and southern Africa, Arabia.