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Cyperus difformis; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-08-07

Cyperus difformis L.

Variable flat-sedge; Smallflower umbrella sedge; Dirty-Dora; Small-flower umbrella-plant

Cyperaceae · Corse, France +120

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Cyperus difformis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus difformis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus difformis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus difformis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus difformis, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cyperus difformis, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.1°C
Record low 6.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
679mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–45DLI
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 October (October to April at the habitat), 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 difformis is a species of sedge known by several common names, including variable flatsedge, smallflower umbrella-sedge and rice sedge. This plant is native to southern Europe, most of Africa and Asia, and Australia, and it is naturalized in other areas of the world, including large parts of the Americas.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (469 mm of 631 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.9 °C against a yearly mean of 20.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

Rain

631 mm in the median year at the habitat, 469 mm of it October to April. Wettest month February at 97 mm, driest months (2 at 28 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 290 mm to 1,534 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 679 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 631 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 45 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.1 °C, the absolute minimum 6.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.8 °C to 18.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.5 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.1 °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: 53 to 58% 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 -89 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cyperus difformis through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 8.6 °C; 631 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, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°33.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 20–45RH 53–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 472 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 °C32 / 26–3531 / 26–3529 / 25–3426 / 21–3322 / 18–3119 / 15–2918 / 14–2820 / 15–3024 / 18–3327 / 21–3529 / 24–3630 / 26–36
Night °C22 / 17–2621 / 17–2519 / 15–2516 / 11–2413 / 8–2210 / 6–209 / 5–1910 / 6–1913 / 8–2216 / 10–2318 / 13–2520 / 15–26
Rain mm86 / 20–29397 / 23–28857 / 19–20541 / 15–12839 / 11–11934 / 6–10533 / 3–7328 / 2–6728 / 5–6440 / 19–8765 / 25–11983 / 24–174
DLI43 / 36–5139 / 35–4637 / 31–4030 / 25–3724 / 18–3320 / 15–3122 / 16–3228 / 22–3736 / 29–4242 / 37–4645 / 39–4745 / 39–50
RH %56 / 45–6457 / 46–6555 / 47–6354 / 47–6256 / 48–6258 / 47–6256 / 46–6254 / 45–6054 / 44–6053 / 43–6153 / 45–6154 / 45–62

Records on both sides of the equator: the 313 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 472 cells that remain: the 450 at least 10° south and the 22 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 472 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (547 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 2395:6660 (-29.775, 153.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °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 472 distinct grid cells holding 547 of the 901 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (313 cells poleward of 10° north, 450 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 2395:6660 (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 -30.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -89 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 30 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.
NativeCorse, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Azores, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Oman, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Tokelau-Manihiki, Cook Is., Marianas · introduced: Germany, Hungary, Sardegna, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Canary Is., Madeira, St.Helena, Chagos Archipelago, Assam, Fiji, Caroline Is., Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · 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 marker-29.342, 149.312 · in the densest population, 282 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1617 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 547 of them in the land cells it reads, of 901 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1233 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 35 km away. 172 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 716 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 1617 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 difformis, photograph 1did not loadCyperus difformis, photograph 2did not loadCyperus difformis, photograph 3did not loadCyperus difformis, photograph 4did not loadCyperus difformis, photograph 5did not loadCyperus difformis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Jasminum didymum Jasminum didymum Desert jasmine Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAcacia macradenia Acacia macradenia Zig-zag Wattle Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyBrachychiton rupestris Brachychiton rupestris Queensland Bottle Tree Photo: CC BY, Wairambar RainforestAlectryon diversifolius Alectryon diversifolius Holly bush Photo: CC BY, Martin Hannan-JonesAcacia bancroftiorum Acacia bancroftiorum Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, brandon_hewittMelaleuca bracteata Melaleuca bracteata River Tea-tree Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 difformis f. humilis; Cyperus difformis f. maximus; Cyperus difformis subsp. breviglobosus; Cyperus difformis subsp. humilis; Cyperus difformis subsp. maximus and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Corse, France, Portugal +119
Wild records
1617 in range · 1233 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; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (15 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 -30.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -89 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 237 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…