A densely tufted perennial grass to 90 cm high of grassland, open woodland and open waste places on poor soil in Ghana to N and S Nigeria; a common grass throughout eastern and southern Africa.Reports on the value of grazing are ambivalent. In Tanganyika cattle are said to eat it at all stages, even when dried up (7), and conversely that it is not liked by stock (5). In Zimbabwe it is reported as ‘probably a good forage’ (1) and taken by cattle when young (10), but also to be of little value as fodder (2). In the Transvaal it provides excellent autumn and winter grazing (4), but in the Orange Free State to be seldom touched by stock (3). Such contradictions must imply a presence or an absence of alternative more palatable species, a situation inferred in a report from Zimbabwe of the grass’s presence in cattle areas as an indicator of over-grazing (8), i.e., it has become dominant over more acceptable species browsed out. Thus cattle may condition the grass biota.The plant has unspecified medicinal use in Zambia (9). Fula in N Nigeria crush the leaves which are cooked in porridge taken as a hepatitis medicine (6). The Fula vernacular name meaning ‘sheep’s salt grass’ suggests that the grass might be a source of a vegetable salt.