World Checklist of Selected Plant Families and European Botanical Profiles

• Aira caryophyllea — The scientific and taxonomic name of a specific species of dwarf annual grass, popularly known as 'silver hairgrass', remarkable for its silver or purplish, highly diffuse panicles that open in an elegant manner structurally reminiscent of the delicacy found within the Caryophyllaceae family. The plant develops slender stems, almost invisible within the meadow mass, functioning as a pioneer species that rapidly colonizes luminous clearings, eroded siliceous soils, and sand dune margins across continental Europe and Mediterranean regions.
• Aira elegans — The scientific and taxonomic name of a specific species of annual grass, popularly known as 'elegant hairgrass', remarkable for its extremely lax, delicate, and filiform-branched panicles whose small spikelets appear invisibly suspended in mid-air. This fragile herbaceous plant is native to the Mediterranean basin and southern Europe, functioning as a pioneer species perfectly adapted to sandy, dry, siliceous, or degraded soils, being valued in boutique horticulture and dried flower arrangements due to its fine, airy, and highly aesthetic structure.