Eulalia aurea (Bory) Kunth

Rhizomatous perennial. Culms 40–150 cm high, tufted, branched; base bulbous or slightly swollen, densely covered with sericeous or cream hairs, cataphylls clearly present; nodes glabrous or hairy. Leaves: ligule a jagged edged membrane, 0.5–1.5 mm long; blade 4–30 cm long, 2–4 mm wide. Inflorescences subdigitate or digitate racemes; racemes 2–5 per inflorescence with 12–40 spikelet pairs, 4–10 cm long with dark brown, golden-or caramel-coloured hairs; raceme internodes and pedicels more or less the same length, 2–3.7 mm long, with golden-or caramel-coloured hairs. Spikelets narrowly elliptic, linear or narrowly oblong, 3.5–5 mm long, 0.8–1 mm wide; callus c. 0.5 mm long; lower glume shape and size as per spikelet, very narrowly truncate (sometimes jaggedly so but often obscured by hairs), flat on back, brown, with hairs on lower half of back; upper glume lanceolate, very narrowly truncate, sometimes irregularly notched or obtuse but often obscured by hairs, more or less equal to lower glume in length, brown, sparsely hairy on back; lower lemma absent; upper lemma c. 1.5 mm long (including lobes); awn arising between lemma lobes 9–12 mm long.

Grows in a wide variety of habitats from savannas to grasslands and in a variety of soils including cracking clay, clay loam and sand (Anderson 2003, Crowder & Saggers 2010); often associated with seasonal watercourses (PlantNET 2019).

A drought resistant grass, palatable and nutritious before it starts to flower; highly regarded fodder species in New South Wales (Rolfe et al. 1997, Milson 2000, Lazarides 2002, Anderson 2003, Crowder & Saggers 2010).