T.A. Cope (1995) Dignathia. Flora of Somalia 4:214-216.
Plants annual or perennial. Inflorescences solitary terminal cylindrical racemelike panicles, with racemosely arranched short, spikelike branches; branches with short, curved axes bearing 1-2 spikelets on a short stalk. Spikelets with 1 floret; glumes exceeding the floret, unequal, laterally compressed, thickly indurated, usually more or less gibbous, rarely straight, scabridulous to lanate; upper glumes longer than lower glumes and caudate; lemmas keeled, shortly awned.
Dignathia includes 5 species. They are native to tropical Africa, southern Arabia, and India. Four species grow in Somaliland and Somalia.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.