Exotheca abyssinica Andersson

Densely tufted perennial.. Culms 30–200 cm. high.. Leaf-blades 5–45 cm. long, 1–4 mm. wide, the sheath produced at the mouth into narrow auricles 3–18 mm. long.. False panicle lax, narrow, of 1–10 distant raceme-pairs, these long-exserted from linear spatheoles 8–12 cm. long; racemes 1.5–3 cm. long, 2-awned per pair, green tinged with purple; raceme-bases unequal, the lower up to 5 mm. long but usually much shorter, the upper filiform and 15–25 mm. long.. Homogamous spikelets narrowly oblong, forming an involucre at the base of each raceme.. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 12–15 mm. long (including callus); callus slender, 3–4 mm. long; lower glume at length brownish, pubescent with fulvous or pallid hairs; upper lemma with a stout awn 6–10 cm. long, its column fulvously pubescent.. Pedicelled spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 14–16 mm. long, glabrous, with or without a terminal bristle up to 10 mm. long.. Fig. 188.