Tufted wiry perennial up to 50 cm high, the base invested with hard yellow glabrous to silky-tomentose scales; leaves flat. Panicle narrowly oblong, 3–13 cm long, rather dense. Spikelets oblong, 2.5–5.5 mm long, 4- to 15-flowered, disarticulating between the florets, the rhachilla fragile; glumes subequal, lanceolate, 1–2 mm long, subacute; lemmas elliptic-oblong in profile, thinly membranous, 1.3–1.7 mm long, smooth or scaberulous, with or without a few bristles on the keel, broadly obtuse and shortly mucronate; palea-keels pectinate-ciliate, the hairs 0.4–0.7 mm long; anthers 3, c. 0.8 mm long.
Range
S1
Altitude range
c. 200 m.
Distribution (external)
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Notes
Although widespread in East Africa between 300 and 1600 m, it is known from Somalia only from the type specimen.
