Compilation
Sorghastrum bipennatum

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Name

Identification
Sorghastrum bipennatum (Hack.) Pilger [family GRAMINEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by O. Bognounou, 1972
Related name
  • Sorghastrum bipennatum
  • Andropogon nutans
Common name
  • ninki-bafoen (Glanville; FCD) (SIERRA LEONE, KORANKO), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 2

Flora

Entry for SORGHASTRUM bipennatum (Hack.) Pilg. [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 451, (1982) Author: W. D. CLAYTON and S.A. RENVOIZE
Names
SORGHASTRUM bipennatum (Hack.) Pilg. [family POACEAE], in N.B.G.B. 14: 96 (1938); F.P.S. 3: 538 (1956); Ann. list. Nyasaland grasses: 60 (1958); G.T.: 98 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 468 (1972). Type: Sudan, Seriba Ghattas, Schweinfurth 2486 (K, iso.!)
Andropogon bipennatus Hack. [family POACEAE], in Flora 68: 142 (1885)
Sorghum bipennatum (Hack.) Kuntze [family POACEAE], Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 791 (1891); F.T.A. 9: 144 (1917); Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 1: 97 (1929)
Andropogon nutans Franch. var. africanus [family POACEAE], in Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun 8: 329 (1895). Types: Congo (Brazzaville), Bouanga, Thollon 1077, (P, syn.) & Ogooué, Thollon 788 (K, isosyn.!)
Information
Weak-stemmed annual; culms 30–300 cm. high, often decumbent and rooting at the nodes below. Leaf-blades 10–60 cm. long, 3–10 mm. wide. Panicle narrowly lanceolate, 10–40 cm. long, the peduncles capillary and glabrous or with a few hairs near the discoid tip; racemes reduced to a single sessile spikelet, all of which, being terminal, are accompanied by 2 barren pedicels. Spikelets narrowly ovate, 4–5.5 mm. long; callus rounded, without a noticeable corona of hairs; lower glume coriaceous, becoming dark brown at maturity, pilose with white, grey or yellowish hairs; awn of upper lemma 25–40 mm. long, bigeniculate, puberulous along the spiral.
Range
DISTR. T4, 6–8 tropical Africa and Madagascar
Altitude range
400–1500 m.
Distribution
TANZANIA Kilosa District Vuma Hill area, 14 June 1973, Greenway & Kanuri 15464! & Mugira track, 1973, Greenway & Kanuri 15171!TANZANIA Mbeya District Mbosi, 1928, Jacobsen 2!
Notes
S. bipennatum is barely distinct from the tropical American S. incompletum (Presl) Nash. The latter has a somewhat denser panicle, occasional racemes composed of two spikelets, and generally thinner light brown glumes not more than 4 mm. long.

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