Cyperus tenuispica Steud.

Frequently mixed with C. haspan, but glumes of C. haspan are longer and straight and the nuts smoother than those of C.tenuispica.

Annual, 10-15 cm, forming small tufts. Stem 0.5-1.3 mm diam., 3-5-angular, smooth. Leaves shorter than stem, soon withering; sheaths green or red, soft, lower blade-less, mouth oblique or, when leaf blade present, rather straight; ligule 0; blades up to 60 mm, 1-2 mm wide, yellow-green, flat or folded, soft, rather acute, margins and keel smooth, apex barbed. Inflorescence a compound anthelodium, 20-70 mm; bracts few, one or two foliose, up to more than 10 cm; primary branches c. 10, up to 70 mm; secondary anthelodium 10-20 mm, almost spherical, secondary branches 5-15 mm; cluster of spikes at the tip of all of the secondary branches, with 2-10 sessile spikes; spikes 2-8 x c. 1 mm, compressed, with 10-30 glumes; glume-like bract c. 0.8 mm, cymbiform, glume-like prophyll clasping, c. 0.6 mm, scarious, sterile; rachis 4-angled, c. 0.4 mm wide, green or reddish, internodes c. 0.5 mm, hardly winged; glumes c. 1 mm, closely imbricate, cymbiform, recurving, obtuse, mid-nerve area green, slightly keeled near the apex, sides reddish brown, margins narrowly scarious. Stamens 1 or 2, connective tip smooth. Nut 0.4-0.5 mm, almost spherical to obovoid, obtusely trigonous, white or yellowish, papillose or tuberculate.

Tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.

Distribution: Tropical Africa, E. Africa, Kashmir, India, from Tadjikistan and Himalayas to Sri Lanka and eastwards.

500-1400 m

Fl. Per.: September - December.

Marshlands, river banks, weed in rice fields.

Cyperus tenuispica is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to seasonally dry tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Australia.

The annual herb to grass-like sedge typically grows to a height of 0.05 to 0.4 metres (0.2 to 1.3 ft). It blooms between February and August producing red-brown flowers.

In Africa it is found from Mauritania in the north west to sudan in the north east down to Namibia and the Northern Provinces of South Africa in the south. In Asia the range of the plant extends from Tajikistan in Central Asia through the Himalayas and into eastern parts of Asia as far as Japan. It is found across northern Australia in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory in seasonally dry tropical areas. It is found across northern Australia in Queensland, the Northern Territory and in Western Australia In Western Australia it is found along streams and creeks in the Kimberley region where it grows in sandy-clay soils.