Small tufted annual. Culms filiform, 4–25 cm high. Leaf-blades to 10 cm long. Spikelets 1–3, 1.5–3 mm long; involucral bract much exceeding spikelets; glumes acute, with sides conspicuously 3–4-nerved, hyaline to pale brown, often tinged dark red-brown, 0.5–1 mm long; stamens 1 or 2; style 3-fid. Nut unequally triquetrous, ellipsoid, minutely roughened, glistening, dark brown to blackish, c. two-thirds as long as glume, 0.4–0.6 mm long, c. 0.3 mm diam. Flowers spring.
LoM, MuM, GipP, OtP, NIS. Also NSW, ACT. Native to southern Africa. Known from a small number of collections, including Hattah Lakes, Wyperfeld National Park, and Highett (south-eastern suburb of Melbourne). Also recorded as a weed in stock at a Box Hill plant nursery and likely to spread with potted plants from that source.
Source:
Wilson, K.L. (1994). Cyperaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 238–356. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
