Eulalia aurea

Eulalia aurea is a tufted perennial grass in the Poaceae family, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australia. It forms compact clumps with slender, erect culms rising 60 to 150 centimetres from a fibrous root system. The leaves are linear and narrow, typically 3 to 8 millimetres wide, with rough margins and a tapering apex; ligules are short and membranous. The most distinctive feature is the inflorescence, a digitate cluster of two to several slender, golden to coppery-yellow racemes radiating from the apex of the culm. Each raceme bears paired spikelets — one sessile and bisexual, the other pedicelled — clothed in long, silky, golden hairs that give the inflorescence a glistening appearance and inspired the specific epithet. The awn of the fertile lemma is geniculate and twisted. The species favours open savanna, rocky hillsides and disturbed grasslands.