Slender annual; culms branched, (6-)18-70 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades linear, 7-20 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, flat, usually glabrous, tapering towards the base and apex; sheaths occasionally ciliate on the margins. Panicle ovate to oblong, 5-15 cm long, scarcely exserted from the uppermost leaf-sheath. Spikelets ellipsoid, 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous, shortly acuminate; lower glume ovate, half to three-quarters the length of the spikelet, (1)3-nerved, acute or occasionally with a very short awn-point; upper glume 3-5-nerved; lower lemma 3(-5)-nerved, its palea well developed; upper lemma pallid, smooth and shining.

Type: Senegal, Leprieur (B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab; naturalised); Senegal to Sudan and south to Zambia; India, China and Malaysia.

This species was originally introduced to Pakistan for testing as a fodder grass and is now established in a small area in the Punjab.

The confusion over the correct spelling of the epithet arose as the result of a mistranscription by Mez of the name Walo, the type locality; he mistook the ‘1’ for an uncrossed ‘t’ thereby citing the locality as Wato. The International Code permits the correction of mistakes in typography, but see Clayton in Kew Bull. 20:264. 1966.