Cyperus gilesii

The annual or perennial sedge has a slender tufted habit. It has smooth trigonous or triquetrous shaped culms that are typically 10 to 35 cm (3.9 to 13.8 in) in height with a diameter of 0.8 to 2 mm (0.031 to 0.079 in) diameter.[2]

The septate to nodulose leaves are shorter than the culms and have a width of about 4.5 mm (0.18 in). The sedge flowers in spring and summer producing simple inflorescences with one to five branches that have a length of around 6 cm (2.4 in). The dense flower clusters are subdigitate with a hemispherical to globose shape and a diameter of around 50 mm (2.0 in). There are one to three leaf-like involucral bracts. There are many flattened spikelets per cluster that have a length of 10 to 30 mm (0.39 to 1.18 in) and a width of 2.5 to 4.5 mm (0.098 to 0.177 in) containing 8 to 34 golden brown to red-brown flowers. After flowering a trigonous very narrow-ellipsoidally shaped red-brown to grey-brown nut forms that has a length of 2.0 to 5.0 mm (0.079 to 0.197 in) and a 0.3 to 1.0 mm (0.012 to 0.039 in) diameter.[2][1]

The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1878 in the work Flora Australiensis.[3] The specific epithet honours the explorer William Ernest Powell Giles who led five major expeditions throughout central Australia.[1]

C. gilesii is found throughout Australia. It is common throughout Queensland, northern South Australia, northern New South Wales and eastern parts of the Northern Territory.[4][1] In Western Australia it only occurs only rarely in the Pilbara region.[5] It is often situated ephemerally wet situations, including inland stream and river banks, floodplains and roadside drains.[2]

• List of Cyperus species
• Plants using Giles names