Cyperus latifolius Poir.

Perennial herb, robust, 0.3-0.9 m high, long-rhizomatous. Leaf blades 10-20 mm wide, flat, margins smooth. Culm scapose, acutely 3-angled, 5 mm in diam. Inflorescence a dense, compound anthela, 150-300 mm in diam., stalks scabrid-hairy. Subtending bracts 3 or 4, leaf-like. Spikelets spreading at ± 90°, compressed, 10-18 x 2.0-2.5 mm, 8-16-flowered. Glumes hardly imbricate, oblong, obtuse, 2.2 mm long, hardly keeled. Flowering time Oct. Nutlet obovate, 1.2 mm long, 3-angled, dark brown, surface minutely reticulate to smooth.

Swampy locations, often on the drier margins of Cyperus papyrus L. swamps, in ditches along roads, and along streams; at elevations from sea level to 2,100 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings.