Flor. Cap. 7: 632 (1900).- Type: Hasselquist, HL89-2, s.l. (lecto- LINN).
Briza bipinnata Linn., Fl. Palaest. 12 (1756);
Eragrostis bipinnata (L.) K. Schum., Pflanzenw. Ost-Afrika-C: 113 (1895) ;
Eragrostis cynosuroides (Retz.) P. Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 71 (1812).
Regional litterature: Fl. Sahara: 182 (1977); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 131, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 285 (1998); Poac. Niger: 232 , fig. (1999); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 125 (2015).
Description:
* Rhizomatous tussock-forming perennial up to 1 m high; base with fibrous yellow remains of sheaths. Culms erect robust and glabrous, slightly pubescent below the inflorescence. Leaves mainly basal, 6-25 cm long and 4-10 mm wide, forming a rosette, linear, rigid and glabrous, often a pungent tip; basal sheaths pubescent, upper ones glabrous; ligule a line of short hairs.
* Inflorescence a narrow racemose panicle, 30-50 cm long and 2.5 mm wide; raceme rhachis narrow, rigid and finely pubescent. Spikelets biseriate on one side of the raceme, densely imbricated, breaking up below the glumes.
* Spikelets with 6-10 imbricated florets, 3-10 mm long, oblong-lanceolate. Glumes elliptic, inequal, shorter than lemmas, membranous, ovate and strongly keeled, the lower 1-1,3 mm long, the upper 2-2.2 mm long. Lemmas elliptic, 2.5-3 mm long, 3-nerved with scabrid keels towards the tip; palea with 2 keels. Anthers 2.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger, CAR, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and NE Africa, Asia.