in W.H.Harvey & auct. suc. (eds.).- Type: Figari, Sudan (holo- GE, destr.).
Rabdochloa vulpiastrum De Not., Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 3, 19: 372 (1853).
Regional litterature: Fl. Cap. 7: 648 (1900); FTEA: 294, fig. 81 (1974); Fl. Rwanda: 305 (1988); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 104, fig (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 41, fig (1999); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual, 0.1-1.2 m high. Culms slender, erect or geniculately ascending, simple or branched. Leaves 2-8(12) cm long and 6-15(20) mm large, lanceolate-oblong to narrowly ovate, rounded or abruptly constricted and cordate at the base, flat or involute when dry; ligule truncate, ciliolate sheaths tight, glabrous.
* Inflorescence narrowly oblong to lanceolate-oblong, feathery, pallid or tinged with red or purple panicle of 5-15(20) long and 1-2.5 cm large with erect, very slender racemes of up to 4 cm long.
* Spikelets 5-10(14)-flowered, narrowly wedge-shaped, oblong, 5-9 mm long. Glumes reddish, subhyaline narrow; lower glume 2-2.5 mm long, finely acute; upper glume 3-3.5(4) mm long, acute or obtuse. Lemmas 2.5-3 mm long, linear-oblong in profile, pubescent below the middle, the marginal cilia 1-2 mm long, entire or minutely 4-toothed at the apex; awn 2.5-5 mm long, straight.
Distribution West Africa: South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Yemen.