Cyperus involucratus

Common Name(s): Umbrella flat sedge

Non-Native to Florida

Origin: Africa1

This species appears on the following legally prohibited plant lists

Federal Noxious Weed List Florida Noxious Weed List Florida Prohibited Aquatic Plants List
No No No

UF-IFAS Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas

CATEGORY II on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s (FLEPPC) 2017 List of Invasive Plant Species

Download a page (PDF) from Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition1

This non-native sedge is sometimes grown as an ornamental, and has become naturalized in wet, disturbed sites from the central and southern peninsula of Florida. Like some other Cyperus species, this one has relatively long narrow pointed spikelets that have 2 rows of tan overlapping scales. Umbrella flat sedge is native to Africa, but escaped cultivation. It blooms from the sumemr to fall (Wunderlin, 2003).

Stems clump-forming, solid, triangular, to 4 1/2 ft. tall, to 3/4 in. wide near base; leaf blades none, just sheaths wrapping stem base; bracts of inflorescence conspicuous, leaf-like, a clusster of 10-25, mostly longer than the inflorescence; inflorescence a central spikelet cluster including 15-25 stalked clusters, each cluster having 8-15 spikelets; spikelets long and thin, to 3/8 in. long, obvious overlapping scales, 15-30 flowers; nutlet brown, 3-angled, tiny

For brief control information, see Efficacy of Herbicide Active Ingredients Against Aquatic Weeds by K. Langeland, M. Netherland, and W. Haller.

 

 

Citations

1. Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition,
by K.A. Langeland, H.M. Cherry, et al. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 257. 2008.