Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Cyperus haspan L.
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: The way this species differs from others in the genus is by the following combination of characters: leaves consisting only of bladeless sheaths, plants growing in tufts, bracts subtending the inflorescence 3 or fewer, achenes triangular.
- Habitat: Wet ditches, marshes, shores, shallow streams, edges of swamps, wet clearings.
- Habit: Annual or short-lived, tufted perennial herb.
- Stems: Upright, 3-angled, rather soft, smooth, up to 4 1/2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Reduced almost entirely to bladeless sheaths near the bases of the stems; sheaths usually purplish.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, with many spikelets in a much branched, terminal inflorescence subtended by 3 or fewer bracts.
- Spikelets: Flat, linear, 5- to 15-flowered, up to 3/4 inch long, up to 1/16 inch wide, green or brownish, often purple-tinged.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Achenes 3-angled, obovoid, minutely warty, about 1/36 inch long.
Previous Species -- Poorland Flatsedge (Cyperus compressus)
Return to Species List -- Group 3
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