Cuban Bulrush

Scirpus cubensis Poepp. & Kunth in Kunth, Enum PI. 2: 172. 1837.
Oxycaryum schomburgkianum Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 1 : 90. 1842. Anosporum cubense Bock. Linnaea 36: 413. 1870. Oxycaryum cubense Palla, Denks. Akad. Wien. 79: 169. 1908.
Stoloniferous perennial, the roots brown, fibrous, with numerous secondary rootlets, the stolons red, often 2 mm. thick and very elongate or shorter and up to 5 mm. thick; culms solitary at the nodes, to 1 m. tall, sharply trigonous, smooth; leaves all basal, the short, split sheaths drying brown, the blades to 1.5 cm. broad, exceeding the culm in length, scabrous on the margins and midrib, tapered to the blunt tip ; involucral bracts 2-5, leaflike, erect, spreading, or reflexed, unequal or often greatly elongate, scabrous on the margins and midrib, often obscurely so; first head sessile, the others on 1-10 unequal rays; secondary rays occasionally present; heads globose, 1-2 cm. broad, of many crowded spikelets, subtended by 1 or 2 short bracts, the rays to 1 cm. long, smooth, flattened; spikelets many-flowered, the scales ca. 3 mm. long, reddish, spreading, tapered to the acute, reflexed tip; bristles absent; style bifid, brown; achene ca. 3 mm. long, brown above, ellipsoid, lenticular, apiculate, the base broad, cartilaginous.
Type locality: Cuba.
Distribution: Fresh or brackish water or tidal estuaries; tropical and subtropical America.

Cyperus blepharoleptos is a sedge of the family Cyperaceae that is native to the Americas, Caribbean Islands, and Africa. A common name for this species is Cuban bulrush.

This species of Cyperus was named by German physician and amateur botanist, Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel, in 1854.

Cuban bulrush growing in Lake Toho, Florida

It grows to a height of 0.30–0.91 m (1–3 ft). Its stems are sharply triangular and smooth and the leaves grow from the base of the plant. The leaves are narrow and ribbon-like; 6.4 mm (0.25 in) wide and 0.91–1.22 m (3–4 ft) in length, with the leaves often longer than the stem. The inflorescence occurs at the top of the stem. Each stalk is topped by a dense, spherical head, about 19 mm (0.75 in) in diameter. The heads containing numerous reddish-brown spikelets, which are spiral and overlapping. The fruit is an olive nutlet about 20 mm (0.8 in) in length.