[3] This plant is native to southern Europe, most of Africa and Asia, and Australia, and it is naturalized in other areas of the world, including large parts of the Americas.

[1][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Cyperus difformis is a plant of aquatic and moist habitats.

This is an annual herb with one to many thin, soft erect stems reaching over 30 centimeters in maximum height.

The inflorescence is a rounded bundle one to three centimeters wide, containing up to 120 spikelets, each long and partially or entirely covered in up to 30 bracted flowers.

[13][14] C. difformis can be distinguished from most visually similar species by the small size of the glumes, 0.5-0.7 x 0.5 mm, resembling tiny slightly elongated blunt beads.