Kew Bull. 12: 65 (1957).- Type: Wilman HK.1, South Africa, Warrentol-on Vaal (holo- K).
Eleusine indica ssp. africana (Kennedy-O’Byrne) Phillips, Kew Bull. 27: 259 (1972);
Eleusine coracana (Linn.) Gaertnr. ssp. africana (Kenn.-O’Birne) Hilu & de Wet.
Regional litterature: Gram. Togo: 204 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 143 (1992); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 166 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 136 (2008); Fl. Chad (2013); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 139, fig (1995); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 158 (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 127 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual 1-1.5 m high. Culms moderately robust, frequently rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves up to 10 mm wide. Usually folded; ligule a ciliated membrane ; sheaths compressed and keeled.
* Inflorescence with 2-7 digitate or subdigitate confested racemes. Racemes 4-7 cm long and 10-15 mm wide, somewhat flat, brownish and one-sided.
* Spikelets elliptic, disarticulating, 4-8 mm long. Lower glume 2-3-nerved, 2-3.2 mm long ; upper glume 3-4.7 mm long. Small additional nerves in the thickened keel. Lemmas lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm long, the keel with small additional nerves, acute. Caryopsis oblong, 1.2-1.6 mm long, granular et obliquely ridged, plump.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, C, NE, E and southern Africa, Arabic peninsular.
Note : Similar to E. indica but more robust in all the parts. It hybridizes readily with the tetraploid E. coracana, giving rise to a range of intermediates. It is maintained here at the species level for convenience, whilst recognizing that there is a free gene flow between the cultivated species and its wild parent.
FTEA restricts the ssp africana as only occurring in the highlands of East and southern Africa.
The key to distinguish the three forms is:
- Lower glumes 1-veined; panicle branches 3-5.5 mm wide; surface of the seeds striate; grains elliptic, never exposed: indica
- Lower glumes 2-3-veined; panicle branches 5-15 mm wide; surface of the seeds granular; grains plump, almost globose, exposed at maturity between gaping lemma and palea: coracana
- Lower glume 2-3-veined; panicle branches 4-7 mm wide; surface of the seeds granular and obliquely ridged; grains oblong, not exposed at maturity: africana