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← Back to WeedsPurple Nutsedge
🌿 Weed

ANX-WEED-0000251

Purple Nutsedge

Cyperus rotundus

Purple Nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus), a perennial sedge weed of the Cyperaceae family.

Family
Cyperaceae
Growth habit
Sedge
Life cycle
Perennial
Invasive status
Invasive, often described as one of the world's worst weeds
Native region
Tropical Africa/Asia, now pantropical.
Reproduction
Underground tubers and rhizomes - regenerates from tiny tuber fragments, making it extremely difficult to eradicate by tillage alone.

Environment

Habitat & Growing Conditions

Habitat
Cultivated fields, lawns, wet or irrigated ground.
Climate requirements
Warm temperate to tropical; thrives with irrigation and warm soil.
Soil types
Grows in almost any soil, including poorly drained or compacted ground.

Impact

Crops Affected & Economic Impact

Affected crops
Vegetables, maize, cotton, sugarcane, rice, and most row crops
Competition impact
Releases allelopathic compounds that suppress neighbouring crop growth; tuber network makes stands persistent for years.
Economic impact
Ranked among the costliest weeds globally in vegetable and row-crop production due to the difficulty of eradication.

Management

Control Methods

Control methods
Deep, repeated cultivation to exhaust tuber reserves, solarization, and long crop rotations with smother crops.
Organic control
Repeated removal of shoots to starve underground tubers, black plastic mulch/solarization in hot climates.
Chemical control
Systemic herbicides that translocate to tubers (e.g. halosulfuron, glyphosate on actively growing foliage) - contact herbicides alone are ineffective since tubers resprout.