Cyperus rubicundusVahl

Caribbean flatsedge

WFO wfo-0000381675 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 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 rubicundus, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-27 / obs. 174161025
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. b Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173756243
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. c Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174160979
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Henry de Lange
fig. d Henry de Lange, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 33950475
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. e Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 60581069
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. f Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23313397
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. g Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23313691
Cyperus rubicundus, photographed by Sunčana Bradley
fig. h Sunčana Bradley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181305718

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 30 botanical countries

Regions where Cyperus rubicundus is native: Angola, Burundi, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rodrigues, Rwanda, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Lesser Sunda Is., Queensland AngolaBurundiCape ProvincesDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarNamibiaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaGulf StatesOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenIndiaLesser Sunda Is.Queensland Canary Is.MauritiusRéunionRodrigues
Native distribution of Cyperus rubicundus, 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
Burundi BUR
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Provinces CPP
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mauritius MAU
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rodrigues ROD
Rwanda RWA
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Gulf States GST ASIA-TEMPERATE
Oman OMA
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Also published as 13 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.

  • Cyperus calcicola Domin
  • Cyperus coromandelinus Spreng.
  • Cyperus delesserianus Webb & Berthel.
  • Cyperus exilis Willd. ex Kunth
  • Cyperus pentadactylus Willd. ex Kunth
  • Cyperus petraeus Hochst. ex Steud.
  • Cyperus serra A.Rich.
  • Cyperus teneriffae Poir.
  • Cyperus teneriffae f. petraeus (Hochst. ex Steud.) Kük.
  • Cyperus teneriffae var. longimucronatus Kük.
  • Cyperus teneriffae var. succulentus Dinter ex Kük.
  • Cyperus tersus Link
  • Cyperus wightii Nees

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 CYCA18. 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.