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Cyperus rotundus; photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-24

Cyperus rotundus L.

Nutgrass; Purple nutsedge; Nutsedge; Coco-grass

Cyperaceae · Austria, Switzerland +149

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Cyperus rotundus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus rotundus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus rotundus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyperus rotundus, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cyperus rotundus, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cyperus rotundus, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.2°C
Record low 0.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
882mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–42DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cyperus rotundus (coco-grass, Java grass, nut grass, purple nut sedge or purple nutsedge, red nut sedge, Khmer kravanh chruk) is a species of sedge (Cyperaceae) native to Africa, southern and central Europe (north to France and Austria), and southern Asia. The word cyperus derives from the Greek κύπερος, kyperos, and rotundus is from Latin, meaning "round". The earliest attested form of the word cyperus is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀞𐀫, ku-pa-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (523 mm of 696 mm) takes 8 months, September to February and April to May. Mean temperature moves 11.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October to November.

Rain

696 mm in the median year at the habitat, 523 mm of it September to February and April to May. Wettest months (2 at 76 mm), driest month July at 33 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 451 mm to 2,242 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 882 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 696 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: 17 to 42 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.2 °C, the absolute minimum 0.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.8 °C to 22.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.2 °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: 59 to 61% 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 -254 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 rotundus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 11.5 °C; 696 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–42RH 59–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 630 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 °C16 / 10–3017 / 11–3020 / 14–3222 / 16–3324 / 18–3227 / 20–3129 / 21–3229 / 22–3226 / 22–3123 / 19–3121 / 15–3118 / 11–30
Night °C12 / 3–2212 / 3–2313 / 6–2414 / 8–2416 / 11–2519 / 14–2521 / 16–2622 / 16–2520 / 14–2518 / 12–2315 / 7–2313 / 4–22
Rain mm56 / 9–17058 / 17–17156 / 22–17267 / 18–16460 / 12–25441 / 8–36933 / 3–36743 / 5–37976 / 16–25576 / 25–14368 / 16–14262 / 10–174
DLI19 / 13–4024 / 18–3831 / 26–3836 / 31–4240 / 29–4742 / 27–4942 / 26–4838 / 28–4532 / 28–3927 / 20–4121 / 14–4117 / 11–41
RH %60 / 54–6660 / 53–6659 / 53–6659 / 53–6659 / 52–6659 / 51–6760 / 52–6760 / 53–6760 / 53–6661 / 54–6560 / 53–6460 / 53–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 630 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (830 records in those cells; 19 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 1157:4297 (32.125, 34.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.6 °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 630 distinct grid cells holding 830 of the 850 in-range records (19 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1157:4297 (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 32.00_35.000, lapse-corrected -254 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 26 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.
NativeAustria, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Selvagens, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, 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, St.Helena, Aldabra, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique Channel Is., Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria, 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, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Turks-Caicos Is. · introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Maldives, Christmas I., Norfolk Is., Kermadec Is., Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Phoenix Is., Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Missouri, New York, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central · 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 marker39.59, -0.3 · in the densest population, 258 records (20% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1306 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 830 of them in the land cells it reads, of 850 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 690 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2416 km away. 404 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 456 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 1306 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 rotundus, photograph 1did not loadCyperus rotundus, photograph 2did not loadCyperus rotundus, photograph 3did not loadCyperus rotundus, photograph 4did not loadCyperus rotundus, photograph 5did not loadCyperus rotundus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Panicum repens Panicum repens Torpedo grass Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeTriticum aestivum Triticum aestivum Bread wheat Photo: CC BY, Corvi ZemanNerium oleander Nerium oleander Oleander Photo: CC BY, froggymumPotamogeton schweinfurthii Potamogeton schweinfurthii Broad-Leaved Pondweed Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeSilene hifacensis Silene hifacensis Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan RodríguezImperata cylindrica Imperata cylindrica Blady grass Photo: CC BY, 張家瑜

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 Chlorocyperus rotundus; Cyperus agrestis; Cyperus badius subsp. inconspicuus; Cyperus badius var. inconspicuus; Cyperus bicolor and 99 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Cyperus longus Boeckeler is an older name of this species, not Cyperus longus, a species of the reference; Cyperus odoratus Osbeck, 1771 is an older name of this species, not Cyperus odoratus, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Switzerland, Baleares +148
Wild records
1306 in range · 690 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; 48 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 16 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 32.00_35.000, lapse-corrected -254 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 283 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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