Cyperus aquatilis R.Br. APNI*
Description: Slender tufted annual.
Culms triquetrous, smooth, 7–35 cm high, 1–2 mm diam.
Leaves not septate-nodulose, mostly shorter than culms, 1–3 mm wide. Inflorescence simple or compound, with 2–6 primary branches to 15 cm long; digitate clusters to 15 mm diam.; involucral bracts leaf-like, 1 or rarely 2 as long as inflorescence. Spikelets flattened, solitary or 2–8 per cluster, 4–15 mm long, c. 3 mm wide in side view, 10–30-flowered; rachilla not winged, persistent. Glumes acute, sides faintly 1-nerved, 1.5–2 mm long, whitish, often tinged red-brown, with ± obviously reticulate midrib. Stamens 2. Style 3-fid.
Nut trigonous, ellipsoid to obovoid, about half as long as glume, 0.5–0.8 mm long, c. 0.5 mm diam., whitish to pale brown.
Flowering: spring–summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Coast north from Evans Head area; also Qld, NT, WA. Grows in open ephemerally wet situations.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Other Australian states: Qld W.A.
Threatened species: NSW BCA: Endangered
Text by K. L. Wilson Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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