Bull. Soc. Bot. France 36: 253 (1889).- Type: Kotschy 30 , Sudan (iso- BM,K,L,P,TUB,WAG).
Triachyrum cordofanum Hochst. ex Steudel, Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 176 (1854);
Sporobolus commutatus (Trin.) Kunth var. cordofanus (Steud.) Th. Dur. & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 820 (1895);
Sporobolus humifusus (Kunth) Kunth var. cordofanus (Steud.) Massey, Sudan Grasses: 43 (1926).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 362 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 147 (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 290 (1998); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 147 (2015)
Description:
* Tufted annual of 0.1-0.6 m high. Culms erect or ascending, simple. Leaves linear, 4-12 cm long and 3-6 mm wide, glabrous to stiffly pilose and scabrid or pilose on the margins towards the base; ligule a reduced fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence an ovate panicle of 2-10 cm long. Primary branches in whorls, spreading, slender, often reddish, the spikelets borne on secondary branchlets.
* Spikelets 1.6-2 mm long, glabrous or scaberulous, olive-grey to dark grey. Glumes deciduous; lower glume oblong, 0.2-0.6 mm long, obtuse or denticulate; upper glume elliptic and as long as the spikelet. Lemma similar but slightly shorter than the upper glume. Anthers 3, 0.7-1.1 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.6-1 mm long.
Note: There is no clear separation between S. cordofanus and S. iocladus, but it is difficult to associate the weedy annual and the tufted perennial in the same species.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, NE, E and southern Africa.