J.K Wipff

Plants perennial; rhizomatous. Culms 16-75 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. Sheaths glabrous, margins ciliate; ligules 1-1.3 mm; blades5-40 cm long, 2-4.5 mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous, pubescent, or scabrous, margins ciliate or glabrous basally. Panicles terminal,4-11.5 cm long, 50-75 mm wide, fully exerted from the sheaths, erect, white; rachises terete, pubescent (basally). Fascicles 7-11 per cm; fascicle axes 1.5-2.5 mm, with 1-4 spikelets; outer bristles (0)1-8, 1-13.5 mm; inner bristles 23-41, 13-50.5 mm, densely plumose; primary bristles 40-50 mm, ciliate, usually not noticeably longer than the other bristles. Spikelets 9-12 mm, glabrous; pedicels 0.1-0.4 mm; lower glumes 0.3-1.3 mm, veinless; upper glumes 2.5-5.2 mm, 1(3)-veined; lower florets staminate or sterile; lower lemmas 7.5-10.5 mm, 7-9(10)-veined; lower paleas absent or 5.5-8.5 mm; anthers absent or 3.8-4.5 mm; upper lemmas 9-11 mm, 7-veined, apices scabridulous; anthers 3.5-5 mm. Caryopses concealed by the lemma and palea at maturity. 2n = 45.

Pennisetum villosum is native to Ethiopia, Somaliland, and the Arabian Peninsula. It is grown as an ornamental in the North America.

Cope, T.A. Poaceae (1995) Flora of Somalia 4: 149-270

Plants low, mat-forming rhizomatous perennials; stems loosely ascending uo to 45 cm high. Leaves: ligules composed of a line of hairs; blades linear, flat. Panicles densely ovoid to subspherical, 5-10 cm long and wide; branch aces with rounded ribs and short peduncle stumps, thinly pilose; involucres enclosing 1(-2) subsessile spikelets on short villous stipes up to 0.7(-1) mm long; bristles shortly plumose on their lower portions, the longest 35-65 mm long. Spikelets lanceolate, 8.5-10(-12) mm long; lower glumes vestigial or up to 1 mm long; upper glumes 1/3-1/2 the lngth of the speciels; lower lemmas almost as long as the spikelets; upper lemmas as long as the spikelets, coriaceous in the lower portion.

Cenchrus longisetus (called Pennisetum villosum in the Flora of Somalia) grows in damp, sandy ground and on rocky hillsides and gypseous plains, usually in gypsum forests at 1500-2100 m. It is known from region N2 of the Flora of Somalia.