Schoenefeldia gracilis

Schoenefeldia gracilis is a slender annual grass of the Poaceae family, native to the dry savannas, Sahel and semi-desert margins of Africa from Senegal east to Sudan, north into the southern Sahara, across the southern Arabian Peninsula and east to India and Pakistan. Plants are tufted and erect, typically 20 to 60 cm tall, with fine, wiry culms and narrow, often somewhat curled, glabrous to sparsely hairy leaf blades. The inflorescence is highly distinctive: two to several digitate, very slender, gracefully curving or drooping spike-like racemes radiating from the top of the culm, each spike bearing two rows of small spikelets with long, fine, twisted awns that give the seedheads a feathery, golden appearance at maturity. The species is one of the dominant annual grasses of the Sahelian zone, germinating with the first heavy rains and producing seed within a few short weeks. It is an important rainy-season forage for cattle, sheep, goats and wild herbivores.