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Cyperus cyperoides; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-03-19

Cyperus cyperoides (L.) Kuntze

Pacific island flatsedge

Cyperaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +93

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Cyperus cyperoides, photograph (c) Jerome Ko, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cyperus cyperoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus cyperoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus cyperoides, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cyperus cyperoides, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cyperus cyperoides, photograph (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.3°C
Record low 5.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,446mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cyperus cyperoides is a species of sedge that is native to parts of Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cyperus cyperoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,641 mm of 2,122 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,122 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,641 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 323 mm, driest month December at 48 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,103 mm to 4,005 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,446 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,122 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.3 °C, the absolute minimum 5.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.2 °C to 23.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -273 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cyperus cyperoides through the yearWarmest months June, July, August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 13.2 °C; 2,122 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°35.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 21–34RH 62–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 387 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 10–3420 / 11–3623 / 14–3625 / 19–3427 / 22–3228 / 23–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 24–3026 / 21–3123 / 17–3320 / 12–34
Night °C13 / 5–2314 / 6–2416 / 8–2519 / 12–2521 / 15–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 17–2421 / 15–2418 / 12–2415 / 7–24
Rain mm51 / 4–18678 / 9–230115 / 33–216160 / 79–244249 / 124–391323 / 150–546291 / 127–604317 / 72–645301 / 149–526132 / 66–36657 / 10–30048 / 4–204
DLI23 / 14–3725 / 18–4031 / 23–4033 / 28–3932 / 29–3632 / 27–3434 / 25–3831 / 25–3529 / 27–3328 / 23–3524 / 17–3621 / 14–36
RH %62 / 45–7063 / 47–7064 / 53–7064 / 58–7065 / 62–6967 / 63–7067 / 64–7068 / 65–7067 / 63–7065 / 59–7064 / 56–7062 / 48–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 155 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 387 cells that remain: the 267 at least 10° north and the 120 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 387 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (593 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1341:6012 (22.925, 120.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 387 distinct grid cells holding 593 of the 766 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (267 cells poleward of 10° north, 155 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1341:6012 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_120.625, lapse-corrected -273 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 241 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Rodrigues, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Niue, Samoa, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Easter Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Marianas · introduced: Christmas I., Fiji, Tonga, Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Surinam, Venezuela · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker23.612, 120.72 · in the densest population, 406 records (26% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1536 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 593 of them in the land cells it reads, of 766 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 999 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12541 km away. 40 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 770 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1536 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cyperus cyperoides, photograph 1did not loadCyperus cyperoides, photograph 2did not loadCyperus cyperoides, photograph 3did not loadCyperus cyperoides, photograph 4did not loadCyperus cyperoides, photograph 5did not loadCyperus cyperoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jerome Ko, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Dennstaedtia speluncae Dennstaedtiaceae Cryptolepis sinensis Cryptolepis sinensis Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzTectaria membranacea Tectaria membranacea Tectariaceae Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Cyclea gracillima Cyclea gracillima Menispermaceae Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Ophiopogon reversus Ophiopogon reversus Asparagaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDendrocnide meyeniana Dendrocnide meyeniana Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang Wang

Other Cyperus 73 in the reference

Cyperus acuminatus Cyperus acuminatus Taper-tip flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Frankie SimmonsCyperus aggregatus Cyperus aggregatus Inflatedscale flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Lucas CarboneCyperus alatus Cyperus alatus Cyperaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCyperus albostriatus Cyperus albostriatus Dwarf umbrella-grass Photo: CC BY, Malte KrömerCyperus alternifolius Cyperus alternifolius Umbrella sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedCyperus aromaticus Cyperus aromaticus Navua sedge Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreCyperus articulatus Cyperus articulatus Jointed flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Cezanne SandersCyperus bipartitus Cyperus bipartitus Shining flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronCyperus brevifolius Cyperus brevifolius Globe Kyllinga Photo: CC0, author not statedCyperus byssaceus Cyperus byssaceus Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Agustina MedinaCyperus capitatus Cyperus capitatus Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade Cyperus cephalanthus Buttonbush flatsedge all 74 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cyperus biglumis; Cyperus cylindrostachys var. subcompositus; Cyperus cylindrostachyus var. subcompositus; Cyperus cyperoides subsp. brevispicatus; Cyperus cyperoides subsp. clarkei and 86 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
(L.) Kuntze
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +92
Wild records
1536 in range · 999 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 41 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (33 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_120.625, lapse-corrected -273 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Cyperus cyperoides (L.) Kuntze (the item's: IPNI 74581-2, POWO 74580-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 172 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…