Herbs, annual, cespitose. Culms trigonous, 5-25 cm × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Inflorescences: spikes loosely ovoid, 15-25 mm wide; rays 1-6, 2-7 cm; bracts 2-5, 3-20 cm, ascending; rachilla deciduous, winged. Spikelets 5-30, linear, flattened, 6-22 × 1.5-2.2 mm; floral scales ± deciduous, (4-)8-12, red, reddish purple, or reddish brown, medially green, elliptic, laterally 2-4-ribbed, 2.3-3.1 × 1.2-2 mm, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers: anthers 0.3-0.4 mm; styles 1 mm; stigmas 1.3-1.6 mm. Achenes brown to dark purplish brown, broadly ellipsoid, 1-1.3 × 0.6-0.9 mm, surfaces puncticulate.

Fruiting summer. Stream banks, desert washes, arroyos, roadsides; 0 800 m; Ariz., Calif., N.Mex.

Common Name: Parish's flatsedge

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Tufted to solitary annual with three sided stem, 5-25 cm tall, 1-1.5 mm in diameter, glabrous.

Vegetative: Basal leaves 3-5, sheaths firm, 1-3.5 cm long, pinkish to brownish, blades flat to involute, 1.5-3 mm wide, 3-20 cm long.

Inflorescence: Loosely ovoid spikes 15-25 mm wide, with 1-6 rays, each 2-7 cm, subtending bracts 2-5, 3-20 cm, ascending; spikelets 5-30, linear, flattened, 6-22 mm long by 1.5-2 mm wide, floral scales deciduous, 8-12, red to reddish purple, or reddish brown, elliptic; achenes brown to dark purplish brown, broadly ellipsoid, a little over 1 mm long, with minutely punctate surfaces.

Ecology: Found on stream banks, along desert washes and arroyos along with disturbed sites from 1,000-5,500 ft (305-1676 m); flowers August-October.

Notes: Distinctive with the long ovoid spikes that dangle laxly at anthesis.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Cyperus is from the Greek word meaning sedge, while parishii is named for the brothers Samuel Bonsall Parish (1838-1928) and William Fletcher Parish (1840-1918) who collected widely in California.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010