Cyperus hamulosus
M.Bieb.Dwarf tufted annual, curry-scented when dry. Culms triquetrous, smooth, 1–5 cm high, to 0.5 mm diam. Leaves not septate-nodulose, as long as culms or shorter, c. 1 mm wide. Inflorescence head-like or with 2 or 3 branches to 1 cm long; spikes or subdigitate clusters short-cylindric to globose, to 0.6 cm diam.; involucral bracts leaf-like, 1–3 longer than inflorescence. Spikelets ± angular, few to numerous per spike, 3–6 mm long, 2–2.5 mm diam., up to 28-flowered; rachilla not winged, persistent; glumes ± spirally arranged, excurved-mucronate, with sides 1–2-nerved, hyaline, whitish to pale brown, 1–1.7 mm long (including mucro to 0.4 mm long); stamen 1; style 3-fid. Nut trigonous, narrow-obovoid, red-brown to blackish, two-thirds as long as glume, 0.8–1 mm long, c. 0.3 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
Also naturalised in NT, SA. Native to Africa, Asia. Recorded only from moist sandy areas around receding lakes or watercourses near Red Cliffs and at Hattah Lakes.
Sometimes considered to be an introduction into Australia (e.g. with camels from Baluchistan), but its occurrence in remote and otherwise pristine wetlands in e.g. Central Australia, suggests it, like the similar Cyperus squarrosus, to be cosmopolitan and native to Australia..
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.
