Flora 38: 202 (1855).- Type: Schimper in Herb. Buchinger 1309, Ethiopia, Agau (holo- STR, iso- G,P).
Sporobolus longibracteatus Stapf, Kew Bull. 1907: 219 (1907).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 410 (1972); FTEA: 380 (1974); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 472, fig. (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 153 (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 291 (1998); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Densely tufted perennial or shoots contiguous from the short oblique rhizome, 0.1-0.6 m high; basal sheaths yellowish, indurated, often covered by the fibrous remains of the sheaths. Culms erect, slender, 1-2-noded. Leaves mainly basal, narrowly linear, flat, 4-10 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat or convolute with filiform tip; ligule a fringe of hairs.
* Inflorescence a narrowly ovate panicle, 7-20 cm long, with secondary branches. Branches bare below and spikelets second and clustered towards the tips of the branchlets.
* Spikelets ovate, 1.7-2.1 mm, scaberulous or smooth, pallid greyish green to dark green. Lower glume lanceolate, 0.8-1.0 mm long, acute; upper glume narrowly ovate, as long as spikelet, membranous. Lemma ovate, similar as upper glume, acute. Anthers 3, 0.8-1.0 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.6-0.8 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Somalia, E Africa, Namibia, Arabic Peninsular, Pakistan.