Common name
Silky Browntop

Derivation
Eulalia Kunth, Révis. Gramin. 160 (1829); named in honour of Eulalie Delile who illustrated Kunth's Révision des Graminées (1829–1834).

aurea- Latin for golden-yellow. With spikelets or pedicels or other parts invested in golden-yellow hairs.

Published in
Rev. Gram. 1: 359 (1830).

Common synonyms
Eulalia fulva (R.Br.) Kuntze

Habit
Perennial, mat forming or tufted (loosely). Basal leaf sheaths glabrous or pubescent. Culms 40–150 cm tall. Mid-culm nodes glabrous or pubescent. Lateral branches branched. Ligule a fringed membrane, 0.5–0.8 mm long. Leaf-blades 3–30 cm long, 2–6 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface glabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate, filiform.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence with ramose branches. Rames digitate, 3–14 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes, subterete, pilose on surface, villous on margins. Rhachis hairs dark brown, 1 mm long. Rame internodes linear. Rame internode tip transverse.

Spikelets
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile and fertile and the other (companion) spikelet pedicelled. Pedicels linear, angular, 1.8–3 mm long, villous. Companion spikelets developed. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, linear or lanceolate or elliptic, dorsally compressed, 3.5–5 mm long, 1 mm wide, falling entire, deciduous from the base or with accessory branch structures. Spikelet callus 0.5 mm long, base obtuse, attached transversely.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume linear or lanceolate or elliptic, 100% of length of spikelet, cartilaginous or coriaceous, dark brown, 2-keeled, 5-nerved. Lower glume intercarinal nerves distinct. Lower glume surface pilose. Lower glume hairs dark brown. Lower glume apex truncate. Upper glume linear or lanceolate or elliptic, 3-nerved. Upper glume surface pilose. Upper glume hairs dark brown. Upper glume apex muticous.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with vestigial lower floret. Fertile lemma linear or cuneate, 1–1.5 mm long, hyaline, 3-nerved. Lemma margins ciliate, hairy above. Lemma apex lobed, 2-fid, incised 30% of lemma length, muticous or 1-awned. Median (principal) awn from a sinus, geniculate, 0–20 mm long overall, with a twisted column. Column hispidulous. Palea absent or minute. Grain with adherent pericarp, oblong. Embryo 50% of length of grain. Hilum punctiform.

Continental Distribution:
Africa, Tropical Asia, Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria.

Western Australia: Gardner, Fitzgerald, Hall, Dampier, Mueller, Canning, Keartland, Carnegie, Giles, Fortescue, Ashburton, Carnarvon, Austin, Irwin. Northern Territory: Darwin & Gulf, Victoria River, Barkly Tableland, Central Australia North, Central Australia South. South Australia: North-western, Lake Eyre, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula, Murray. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton, Gregory North, Gregory South, Mitchell, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: Northern Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Wimmera, Riverina.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae Andropogoneae

Notes
Native. Found in all mainland states in drier parts, although mainly in the subtropics and tropics. Also in tropical southern Africa and Réunion. Flowers Nov.–Sept.