Cyperus metzii (Hochst. ex Steud.) Mattf. & Kük.

Asian Spikesedge

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Asian Spikesedge is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Sedge family (Cyperaceae). It is native from Africa through Indo-China to Australia. In Alabama it has been collected in the southern half of the state. Asian Spikesedge grows in lawns and athletic fields, in greenhouses, in roadside ditches, and in fallow fields. It is a cespitose annual with a fibrous root system. The leaves are flat, linear, grass-like, and glabrous. The foliage is often greenish-yellow in color. Flowers are produced in a solitary terminal sub-globose spike subtended by 3-4 leaf like bracts. The bracts are held horizontally to slightly reflexed. Each spike is composed of 50-100 greenish spikelets. The mature achenes are ovoid in outline, brown in color, and with the scale keel conspicuously winged and laciniate. This species was formerly known as Kyllinga squamulata Thonning ex Vahl.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native FACW (NWPL)

Carter, R., R.L. Mears, R.H. Goddard, & C.T. Bryson. 2016. Cyperus richardii (Cyperaceae) new to Florida, U.S.A. and the Western Hemisphere. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 10:191-200.