ABSTRACT
Cyperus rotundas (purple nutsedge) and Cyperus esculentus (yellow nutsedge) are perennial weeds which belong to the Cyperaceae family. The tubers are the principal means by which these species propagate and perpetuate in the long term. The rhizomes are the means by which the plant spreads vegetatively in all directions. They terminate either with a new aerial shoot or with a tuber. The inflorescence is a loose umbel that terminates an unbranched erected culm or scape. Spikelets begin to differentiate from meristems in the axils of the elongating involucral leaves shortly after the scape starts elongating. The earlier flowering may also have been “induced” by the availability of photosynthates over and above those required for tuber production and vegetative growth.
