CYPERUS michelianus(Rottb.) Aschers. & Graebn. subsp. pygmaeus [family CYPERACEAE], in Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2, 2: 273 (1904). [type as above]
Information
Tussocky annual with crowded stems; stems 1–15 cm long and 0.5–1.5 mm thick (but wider across the sheaths), triangular, glabrous. Leaf-blades 1–6 cm long and 1–2 mm wide, flat, but as dry often folded and twisted, scabrid on margin and midrib at least near the apex; sheaths reddish to purple. Inflorescence a congested anthela of irregular outline and surrounded by 4–6(–8) long leafy spreading bracts; major involucral bract 3–12 cm long and 1.5–2.5 mm wide; anthela 0.5–1.2 cm in diam., consisting of several crowded hardly discernable spikes, each with many crowded spikelets. Spikelets 2.5–4 x 1–1.5 mm, green, oblong-lanceolate, 8–15-flowered. Glumes 1.3–1.6 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, 3–7-nerved, uncoloured below, light reddish brown with a thick green midrib above. Stamens 1–2. Style 2-branched. Nutlet 1–1.2 x 0.3–0.4 mm, oblong, lenticular with one flat and one rounded side, yellow to apricot, minutely papillose.
Range
N3; S2 widespread in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World.
