Eulalia aurea (Bory) Kunth
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Common name
Silky Browntop
Derivation
Eulalia Kunth, Révis. Gramin. 160 (1829); named in honour of Eulalie
Delile who illustrated Kunth's Révision des Graminées (18291834).
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 40150 cm tall. Mid-culm nodes glabrous or pubescent. Lateral branches
branched. Ligule a fringed membrane, 0.50.8 mm long. Leaf-blades 330
cm long, 26 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface glabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate,
filiform.
Inflorescence
Inflorescence with ramose branches. Rames digitate,
314 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, 1.83 mm long, villous. Companion
spikelets developed. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret,
without rhachilla extension, linear or lanceolate or elliptic, dorsally compressed,
3.55 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, 11.5 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, 020 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.
Habit (photo)
© ANBG
M. Matthews