T.A. Cope (1995) Oropetium. Flora of Somalia 4: 172-173.
Plants usually small, tufted perennials, rarely anual. Leaves: ligules membranus, with ciliate fringes. Inflorescences single, straight or coiled, spikelike racemes, thes spikelets in 2 opposite, subopposite, or adjacent ranks, sunk in the rachises; rachises tough or breaking insto segments of 1-4(-8) spikelets. Spikelets with 1 floret, dorsally compressed, attached edgewise to the rachises, with or without a minute rachilla extension; lower glumes inconspicuous or absent; upper glumes exceeding and concealing the florets, coriaceous, 1-3-veined; lemmas lightly keeled, hyaline, glabrous to pilose, emarginate to 2-toothed mucronate. Grains mucronate; pericarp reluctantly separable.
Oropetium includes 6 species. They are native from Africa through the Arabian Peninsula to India. There are 3 species 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.