Family: Cyperaceae
Cyperus pygmaeus
Citation:
Rottb., Descr. & Icon. 20 (1773).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Flat-sedge, dwarf sedge.
Description:
Small tufted densely leafy annual, rarely to 10 cm high and sometimes very small; stems triquetrous, sometimes very short or apparently absent; leaves grass-like, usually longer or much longer than the stems; involucral bracts 3 to several, leafy, much longer than the inflorescence.
Spikelets numerous in a single dense subglobose head, ovate-lanceolate, turgid, greenish, 3.5-5 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide, 8-20-flowered; rhachilla very narrowly winged; glumes tightly packed, with short erect or spreading points, back 3-5-nerved, keeled, remainder nerveless, 1.5-2 mm long, narrowed at each end; style branches 2 or sometimes 3.
Nut obovoid, apiculate, cuneate to a small base, c. 0.8 x 0.4-0.5 mm, trigonous, sometimes slightly compressed or plano-convex, cream-white to light-brown, smooth, rather dull, about one-third as long as the glume.
Distribution:
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Grows in wet or often temporarily wet places.
S.Aust.: NW, LE, EA, MU. All mainland States. Africa, the Mediterranean and Asia.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: March — May and Aug.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
The stem is sometimes very short or absent; in the latter case the heads are apparently sessile on the ground.
Author:
Not yet available
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