Plants tussocky perennials, up to 80 cm tall, often with creepongs stolons. Leaves flat or rolled, harsh or soft, often punget; basal sheathspersistent, chartaceous, often keeled and flabellate. Panicles narrowly ovate to pyramidal, 4-15 cm long; primary branches, at least the lowermost, in whorls, the lower 1/4-1/3 without spikelets. Spikelets 1.5-3(-3.3) mm long; lower glumes narroly ovate to narrowly oblong, 0.5-1 mm ong, obtuse; upper glumes narrowly ovate to lanceolate, (1/2-)2/3 the length of the spikelets; lemmas lanceolate-elliptic. anthers 3, 0.9-1.4 mm long. Grains ellipsoid, 0.8-1.2 mm long.
Sporobolus ioclados is native from tropical Africa to India and Sri Lanka. It is known from regions N1,2 and C1,2 and S1-3 of the Flora of Somalia.