Sporobolus caroli

Sporobolus caroli Mez (Poaceae), known as fairy grass or yakka grass, is a tufted perennial grass endemic to the arid and semi-arid interior of Australia, occurring across Queensland, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. Plants form dense, hard-based tussocks 20-60 cm tall arising from a knotty crown, with numerous fine, wiry, erect or ascending culms. Leaf blades are narrow and inrolled, 5-25 cm long and rarely more than 2 mm wide, often greyish-green and harsh to the touch; the ligule is a very short fringe of hairs. The inflorescence is a slender open panicle 5-20 cm long with spreading or ascending branches bearing small, single-flowered spikelets 1.5-2 mm long that are usually pale and shed cleanly at maturity. The fruit is a small free-falling caryopsis. It grows on red sandy and loamy soils of stony plains, claypan margins, mulga woodlands and gibber country, often forming a conspicuous component of pasture after summer rains.