Cyperus rotundus L.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Cyperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cyperus rotundus L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Perennial by scaly tuber-bearing rootstocks; culm rather stout, 0.1-0.5 m. high, usually longer than the leave?. Leaves 3-6 mm. wide, those of the involucre 3-5; umbel 3-8-rayed, the longer rays 5-11 cm. long; spikelets linear, clustered, few in each cluster, acute, 8-20 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide; scales dark purple-brown or with green margins and centre, ovate, acute, appressed when mature, about 3-nerved on the keel; stamens 3; style 3-cleft, its branches exserted; aehene 3-angled, about one-half as long as the scale.

  • Discussion

    Sand dunes and white-lands, throughout the archipelago from Abaco and Great Bahama to the Caicos Islands, Little Inagua and Cay Sal : Bermuda : Florida ; West Indies ; Mexico. Consists of several races differing in stalked or sessile spikes, width of leaves, the scales ovate to elliptic-oblong. Recorded by Herrick as C. Vahlii Steud. Sand or Coast Cyperus.

  • Distribution

    Abaco and Great Bahama to the Caicos Islands, Little Inagua and Cay Sal : Bermuda : Florida ; West Indies ; Mexico.

    Great Abaco Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Inagua Bahamas South America| Bermuda South America| Florida United States of America North America| West Indies|