Typically a robust species with broad leaf-blades, stout culms and spikelets about 10 mm. long; smaller specimens (such as L. thomasii, or the woolly based L. eripoda) have been separated from it, but these seem to represent merely the extreme limit of variation. L. angolensis C. E. Hubbard, with its dense narrow panicle, subacute lower glume and slender callus, is rightly regarded as distinct; it occurs in Angola and Zambia.  Two varieties of L. arundinacea may be recognized, the one (var. arundinacea) with glabrous glumes, the other (var. hensii) with setose glumes. The varieties can be found growing side by side, intermediates are common, and the character tends to be rather variable in other members of the genus. There seems no reason to believe that the feature is of particular significance in this species.