Cyperus melanospermus (Nees) J. V. Suringar.

Perennials. Rhizomes thick, long creeping, internodes short, clothed with brown scales, with 1 culm at each node. Culms distant, 30-120 cm tall, very compressed 3-angled to nearly compressed, smooth, base bulbous, clothed with long leaf sheaths. Leaf sheath brown, cylindric, margin scarious, mouth obliquely truncate, apex mucronate, apical 1 or 2 with a blade; leaf blade ca. 5 cm × 3-5 mm or shorter, flat, apical margin denticulate. Involucral bracts 3, leaflike, spreading to downward reflexed. Spike 1, ovoid, oblong-ovoid, or subglobose, 6-12 × 6-8 mm, with numerous densely arranged spikelets. Spikelets narrowly ellipsoid-ovoid, ca. 3 mm, 1- or 2-flowered. Glumes straw-colored with rusty brown striae, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, 5-7-veined, keel ± spinulose, apex mucronate. Stamens 3; anthers shortly linear; connective prominent beyond anthers. Style long; stigmas 2, shorter than style. Nutlet yellowish white at first but black when mature, oblong to obovoid-oblong, ca. 1/2 as long as subtending glume, plano-convex, with dense punctate processes, apex mucronate. Fl. and fr. Apr-Sep.

Wet places along trails, water margins, sandy areas; below 100-1000 m. Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, NE Australia, Madagascar].