Graminae 

Common names:

Description

Annual with decumbent or ascending culms 25-80 cm high; leaf-sheaths glabrous. Leaf-blades are 7-20 cm long and 3-6 mm wide; the ligule represented by a line of hairs. Inflorescence linear, 5-20 cm long bearing simple racemes either singly and appressed to the axis or in groups and spreading. Racemes are up to 3 cm in length with 4 neat rows of spikelets. Spikelets elliptic, 2.3-3 mm long, pubescent; lower lemma acute or with an awn-point up to 6 mm long; upper lemma about 2.5 mm long.

Habitat

Shallow pools or on moist soil overlying rock.

Altitude range

1500-2160 m (500-2300 m elsewhere).

Distribution

Kenya; also from Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Eritrea, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Use

Not recorded.

Similar Species

Echinochloa colona but that species has no ligules and is awnless.

Edited by: F. Guiso Gallisai
Information taken from: Ibrahim, K. M., Kabuye, C. H. S. 1988. An illustrated manual of Kenya grasses. Rome, FAO. 765 pp.