• Family : CYPERACEAE
  (Sedge Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BARA-NAGAR-MOTHA FAMILY (बड़ा नागर मोथा फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : CYPERACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Kyllinga monocephala Rottb.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Kyllinga nemoralis (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) Dandy ex Hutch. & Dalziel
• Common name : Whitehead spike Sedge
• Vernacular name : Nirbishi, Sevt gottubhi (Kannada); Svetanirvisha (Sanskrit); Paalnirvasi, Peemuthanga, Vallimuthanga, Velutthanirvasi (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Waste places, degraded forest areas and grasslands
• Comments / notes : Often in plains in open moist places.
• Flower, Fruit : June-November
• Collector(s) Name : Raja K. Swamy & Arun Singh
• Collection Date : 13/09/2014
• Collection Nos : HJCB-E-244
• Collection Locality : Jawadu Hills, Tiruvannamalai district (TN)
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Throughout Andhra Pradesh
  • Karnataka : Bengaluru district, Belagavi district, Ballari district, Chikkamagaluru district, Davanagare district, Dharwad district, Hassan district, Mysuru district, Shivamogga district, Tumakuru district, Udupi district, Uttara Kannada district, Dakshina Kannada district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Ahmednagar district, Mumbai-City district, Mumbai Suburban district, Kolhapur district, Nagpur district, Raigad district, Ratnagiri district, Satara district, Sindhudurg district, Thane district
  • Odisha : Puri district
  • Tamil Nadu : Throughout
• Native : Pantropical
• World Distribution : Cosmopolitan
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : J.L.Ellis, 1990- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1996- Flora of Orissa Vol. 4; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. ; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 – Flora of Hassan District; Seetharam et al., 2000 – Flora of Gulbarga District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 – Flora of Udupi District; Manjunath et al., 2003 – Flora of Davanagere District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Kyllinga nemoralis. Downloaded on 3 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)