Taxon 64: 458 (2015).- Type: Schimper 800, Saudi Arabia, Dscheddam (isosyn- REG,US).
Eleusine flagellifera Nees, Linnaea 16: 220 (1842);
Panicum compressum Forssk., Fl. Aegypt.-Arab.: 21 (1775).- Type: Forsskal 46, Yemen (holo- C);
Ochthochloa compressa (Forssk.) Hilu, Kew Bull. 36: 550 (1981).
Regional litterature: Fl. Sahara: 174 (1977); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 108, fig (1995); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 122 (2015). Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 108, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger: 238, fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 137 (2015).
Description:
* Stoloniferous glaucous perennial of 0.3-0.5 m high. Culms hard, creeping, rooting and much branched at the nodes, glabrous and smooth. Leaves narrowly linear, 2-15 cm long and 2-3 mm wide flat to convolute, glaucous, sharp tip; lower sheat woolly pubescent wit a reduced blade, upper sheaths glabrous; ligule a short membrane with long ciliate fringe.
* Inflorescence 3-6 short compact digitate racemes. Racemes unilateral, 2.5-4 cm long and 5-10 mm wide, unilateral with 2 series of imbricated spikelets; rhachis glabrous on the margins, woolly pubescent at the base; racemes deciduous at maturity; spikelets broadside, crowded.
* Spikelets 3-8 florets and reduced florets at the tip, elliptic, 4.5-8 mm long, racheole breaking up above the glumesk green often purplish. Glume whitish, green on the back, asymmetrical; lower 1.5-3 mm long; upper 3.5-5.5 mm long. Lemmas lanceolate-acuminate, 4-5.5 mm long, the lowest villous on the nerves and pubescent on the lower back, the higher ones less hairy. Anthers 2. Caryopsis oblong, 1.8-2 mm long, light brown.
Distribution West Africa: Niger, Chad, Sudan
Distribution world-wide: Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia and NE Africa, W and S Asia.