Tiny Flat-sedge - introduced (*Isolepis levynsiana)

Other names: *Cyperus tenellus.

Family: Cyperaceae (Sedge family).

Native of South Africa.

Occurrence: An environmental weed. It is common, and grows in seasonally wet places e.g. mud-flats besides lakes, bush-track depressions.

Identification:

• it is a small plant, usually to 4-5 cm
• there are two or three spikelets clustered near the ends of the stems
• the flowers are made up of numerous (about 16) husks
• the stem (bract) continues past the flower cluster for a short distance.

The husks (the glumes) of each flower cluster are in two rows on opposite sides of the stem. The apparent extension of the stems are floral leaves (bracts). It is an annual.

Similar species: A number of bog-rushes are also only a few centimetres high. The husks (glumes) in the flowers are arranged around the stalks, not in opposite rows.

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