Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 396 (1850).- Type: Quartin Dillon & Petit s.n., Shire, Ethiopia (holo- P, iso- W).
Vilfa angustifolia (A. Rich.) Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 160 (1854);
Sporobolus indicus var. angustifolius (A. Rich.) Chiov., Ann. Bot. (Rome) 8: 338 (1908).
Regional litterature:
FTEA: 377 (1974); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 153, fig. 61 (1995); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 187, fig. 53 (1999).
Description:
* Densely tufted perennial of 0.3-0.7 m high, the basal sheaths yellowish and coriaceous, becoming fibrous with age. Culms erect, slender. Leaves mainly basal, convolute with a flexuous filiform tip, 10-25 cm long and 1-2 mm wide; sheaths margins and collar pilose.
* Inflorescence in a narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic panicle, 8-19 cm long. Primary branches ascending, bare at the base, glabrous in the axils, the spikelets loosely contracted along the branchlets on slender pedicels mostly longer than 1 mm.
* Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, grey green to olive-grey. Lower glume oblong, 1-1.5 mm long, acute to obtuse or lacinate; upper glume lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 mm long, acute. Lemma equaling the spikelet length or shortly overtopped by the palea, narrowly ovate. Anthers 3, 1-3 mm long, truncate. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 1-1.2 mm long, truncate.
Distribution West Africa: South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and NE, E, southern Africa and Arabic peninsular.