Compilation
Cyperus gypsophilus

Small perennial with a poorly developed short rhizome, but with woody stem-bases; roots with prominent tomentum; stems 10–20 cm long and 1–1.5 mm thick, glabrous, obscurely triangular above, almost terete below. Leaves c. 10 per stem, all basal or in the lower 3 cm of stem; sheaths pale to straw-coloured with a thick 7–15-nerved central part and scarious pale margin; blades 2–10 cm long and 1–1.5 mm wide, thick and almost semiterete with flat or canaliculate upper side, smooth or minutely scabrid on margin, often curved towards the apex. Inflorescence a dense terminal irregular cluster of spikelets 1–2 cm in diam. consisting of 8–15 crowded sessile spikelets; involucral bracts 1–3, erect, spreading or reflexed, leaf-like and to 5 cm long, often slightly curved at apex. Spikelets 8–10 x 2–3 mm, linear-lanceolate, only slightly compressed with regularly distichous glumes, 10–15-flowered. Glumes 3–4 mm long, ovate, pale to medium reddish brown; pale marginal border indistinct; lateral nerves c. 5 on each side of the rather obscure midrib that ends in the obtuse or subacute tip. Style with 3 very long branches. Nutlet c. 1 x 0.9 mm, greyish brown, obovate and prominently triangular with 3 slightly concave faces; the style-base persisting as a small apiculus; surface minutely papillose.