Eriocaulon truncatum Buch.-ham. ex Mart.

Herb 2–11 cm high. Leaves lanceolate, 0.9–5.5 cm long, 1–6 mm wide, acute, 6–11-nerved. Peduncle 1–10.5 cm long, with 4–6 obscure ribs. Sheath 7–45 mm long. Flower heads hemispherical, 2–3.5 mm long, 3–5 mm wide. Involucral bracts hyaline to greyish, elliptic, 1.5–2.6 mm long, 0.9–1.3 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous, not reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts hyaline, spathulate, 1–1.68 mm long, 0.7–0.9 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous. Receptacle sparsely hairy to densely pilose, convex. Male flowers 0.9–1.5 mm long; sepals 2 or 3, fused but split on one side to form a spathe which is often deeply lobed with age, hyaline or black at apex, 1.1–1.3 mm long; 0.35–0.42 mm wide, truncate, or lobes acute, glabrous or pubescent with sparse white apical hairs; petals 3, hyaline, equal, narrow-triangular, obtuse, glabrous, or pubescent with sparse white apical hairs; stamens 6; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 2 or 3, hyaline or black to greyish at apex, dimorphic if 3 sepals, narrow elliptic or navicular, 1–1.3 mm long, 0.1–0.14 mm wide, acute, glabrous or pubescent with sparse white hairs at apex; median sepal linear, c. 0.9 mm long, c. 0.07 mm wide, hyaline, glabrous; petals 3, hyaline, equal, narrowly spathulate to linear, 0.75–1.7 mm long, 0.14–0.3 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous or pubescent with sparse, short, hyaline hairs on margin and adaxially and with or without white hairs at apex; ovary 3-locular. Seeds ellipsoid;0.385–0.4 mm long, c. 0.25 mm wide; epidermal cell wall longitudinal thickenings white, prominent, thicker than transverse walls.

Shallow tea tree swamps; depression in eucalypt forest; under Melaleuca near small stream; spring fed creek in sandstone. Also from disturbed habitats such as roadside drains beside cane farms and waterlogged sandy soil in lawn.