Cyperus metzii(Hochst. ex Steud.) Mattf. & Kük.

Asian spikesedge

WFO wfo-0000377663 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Cyperus metzii, photographed by harrier
fig. a harrier, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-20 / obs. 166369474
Cyperus metzii, photographed by harrier
fig. b harrier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167609339
Cyperus metzii, photographed by harrier
fig. c harrier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166369469
Cyperus metzii, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. d Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156389223
Cyperus metzii, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. e Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155508121
Cyperus metzii, photographed by harrier
fig. f harrier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167609355
Cyperus metzii, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. g Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156389245
Cyperus metzii, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. h Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155508146

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 43 botanical countries

Regions where Cyperus metzii is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, Transcaucasus, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Queensland AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNigerNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina South-CentralTranscaucasusAssamEast HimalayaIndiaNepalPakistanVietnamWest HimalayaQueensland Cape Verde
Native distribution of Cyperus metzii, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Cape Verde CVI
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Transcaucasus TCS
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 108 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.6 °C 13.0 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.8 °C 30.5 °C 32.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,273 mm 1,447 mm 3,287 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 127 mm 207 mm 366 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 108 research-grade observations of Cyperus metzii that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 5 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Kyllinga cristata Afzel. ex A.Rich.
  • Kyllinga dentata Hochst. ex A.Rich.
  • Kyllinga metzii Hochst. ex Steud.
  • Kyllinga squamulata Vahl
  • Kyllinga squamulosa Kunth

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol KYSQ. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.