Foxtail flat sedge

Perennial, fairly robust sedge, up to 170cm tall, with few trigonous, glabrous culms, 22-140cm long by 3.5-8.4mm wide.


Weed Category:
Weed:	No
Form or habit:	Sedges, Rushes and allies
Family:	Cyperaceae
Leaf:	Basally crowded leaves, up to 100cm long. Leaf sheath reddish-brown to black, 7-31cm long. Leaf blade linear, flat to w-shaped, 37-75 x 0.4-1.5cm, strongly scabrid on margin, apex acuminate.
Flower conspicuous:	Conspicuous
Flower colour:	Red, Brown, Gold
Flower description:	Inflorescence a compound anthela, primary branches 6-10, 3-20cm long. Spikelets in crowded clusters, sessile and at the end of primary and secondary, sometimes tertiary branches, many per cluster, ovoid, 2.5-6.7 x 1.8-2.7mm, rachilla straight. Glumes golden to reddish brown, ovate, the margins inrolled, 1.2-1.7 x 0.8-1.2mm wide, keel green, rounded, apex excurrent
Fruit conspicuous:	Conspicuous
Fruit colour:	Brown
Fruit:
Fruit description:	Brown, flattened nutlet, pressed against the rachilla with the flat side, 0.7-1 x 0.5-0.75mm, smooth or minutely reticulate.
Habitat:	Grassland, wetland.
Distribution	Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Malesia, Asia, Africa.
Food source for:
Toxicity:	No toxicity known
Origin:	Australia, Malesia, Asia, Africa.
Notes:	Wetland indicator species.
Information sources:	Department of Environment, Land and Water (2022) Species profile - Cyperus alopecuroides., Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2022) Cyperus alopecuroides Rottb. Plants of the World Online.