2. Kyllinga pumila Michx.
Pl. 78 d, e; Map 295
Cyperus tenuifolius
(Steud.) Dandy
C. densicaespitosus
Mattf. & Kük.
Plants annual, lacking
rhizomes, densely tufted. Aerial stems 3–30 cm long. Leaf blades
1–20 cm long, 1–3 mm wide. Inflorescences of 1–3 globose to
ovoid, headlike spikes, 3–7 mm long, the bracts 1–15 cm long.
Spikelets 1.8–3.3 mm long, the 2 larger scales ovate, folded lengthwise,
the tip tapered to a point, thin and sometimes somewhat translucent, white to
tan with lighter margins, indistinctly several-nerved, the broad midrib (keel)
usually irregularly toothed, green. Fruits 1.1–1.4 mm long,
oblong-elliptic in outline. May–October.
Scattered in southern
and central Missouri, mostly south of the Missouri River (eastern U.S. west to
Kansas and Texas, south to South America; Caribbean Islands, Africa). Gravel
bars and mudflats along streams, rivers, ponds, sinkhole ponds, and lakes;
moist depressions of upland prairies, and moist openings of mesic upland
forests; also in roadside ditches and disturbed wet areas.