Fl. Pedem. 2: 241 (1785).- Type:
Cenchrus racemosus Linn., Sp. Pl.: 1049 (1753);
Tragus brevicaulis Boiss., Diag. Pl. Orient. 13 : 44 (1854).- Type : Schimper 792, Daoudi Arabia (syn- W) ; Kotschy 37, Sudan (syn- W);
Tragus paucispica Hack, Oesterr. Bot. Z. 51: 193 (1901).- Type: Schweinfurt 175, Sudan, s.l. (type- W).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 413 (1972); FTEA: 400 (1974); Fl. Sahara: 163 (1977); Fl. Mauritania: 421, fig (1991); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 313, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 294 (1998); Poac. Niger: 324, fig. (1999) ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 117 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 150 (2015).
Description:
* Caespitose annual of 3-25 cm high. Culms often creeping and ascendant and rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves stiff, 1-4 cm long and 1-3 mm wide with ciliate pectinate cartilaginous margins; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheaths keeled.
* Inflorescence of numerous racemes along a central axis of 3-7.5 cm long in a multilateral false spike, subtended by an inflated leaf-sheath. Each raceme bearing 2-4 fertile and 1-2 apical sterile spikelets; rhachis deciduous from axis, terminating in a barren extension; bases linear, 0.5-1.5 mm long, pubescent, hairy in axils.
* Spikelets with 1 fertile florets, lanceolate, 4-5.5 mm long. Glumes exceeding florets, hyaline, ovate; 0.5-1 mm long, acute; upper glume elliptic, 4-5.5 mm long, lateral veins thickened, ribbed, surface with hooked spines, acuminate. Fertile lemma elliptic, 3.5-5 mm long, membranous, acuminate; palea 2 -veined. Anthers 3, 0.6-0.8 mm long. Caryopse 2 mm long, yellowish brown.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Congo and NE and southern Africa, Kenya, West Asia; introduced in the Americas.