Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 374 (1864).- Type: Burmann, India (holo- LINN).
Dactylus lagopoides Linn., Mant. Pl. 1: 33 (1767) ;
Aeluropus littoralis (Gouan) Parl. var. repens (Desf.) Coss. & Durieu, Expl. Sci. Algérie.: 155 (1855).- Type:
Distichlis sudanensis Beetle, Revista Argent. Agron. 22: 89 (1955).- Setchell & Setchell s.n., Sudan, Port Sudan (holo- UC).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 383 (1972); Fl. Senegal 10: 44, fig 17 (1991, unpubl.); Fl. Mauritania: 412, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 93, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 281 (1998); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 117 (2015).
Description:
* Hardy tufted perennial of 5-40 cm high. Culms procumbent and geniculately ascending, sometimes stoloniferous, wiry and woody with widespread scaly rhizomes; butt sheaths villous. Leaves grey-green, subulate-lanceolate, glabrous or pilose, 1.5-4 cm long and 1.5-3 mm wide, rigid, pungent; ligule a short membrane fringed with hairs; sheaths loose, 0.4-1 cm long, longer than internode.
* Inflorescence a contracted single raceme with the spikelets crowded and densely imbricate, 2-rowed in short heads; short peduncle, 5-10 mm long.
* Spikelets with 4-18 fertile florets, 0-1 sterile basal floret and diminished florets towards the top; ovate, 2-5 mm long, softly villous, disarticulating between each floret at maturity. Glumes chartaceous, elliptic, villous; lower glume 1-2 mm long; upper glume 1.5-2.5 mm long. Lemmas elliptic, 2-3 mm long, variable hairy, 5-9-nerved, mucronate, villous; lateral veins prominent.
Distribution West Africa: WSA, Mauritania, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Lybia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Mediterranean Europe, NE Africa and Southern Asia.
Note: A variable grass vegetatively; several varieties and sspp. were distinguished but the variation doesn’t justify subdivisions.