Plants annual; roots many, fibrous. Culms 2-25 cm tall, densely tufted, bases not swollen, 3-angled, smooth, with few leaves. Leaves not shorter to slightly longer than the culms; sheaths purplish red, short; blades 1-2.5 mm wide, flat or folded. Involulcral bracts 3-6, leaflike, much longer than the inflorescence, bases broad. Inflorescences with 10-20 spikelets, 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter, capitate, pyramidal-ovoid, ovoid, or sub-globose. Spikelets densely agregated to ends of short rays, ovoid to narrowly oblong-ovoid, 3-4 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide; subtending bracts spirally imbricate, about 2 mm long, slightly hyaline, usually yellowish white, sometimes yellowish brown to reddish brown striate, oblong-lanceolate, 3-5-veined, keels green, tips elongate into a recurved mucro; stamens 1(2), anthers oblnog; styles long, 2(3) branched, stigmas usually yellow papillate. Nutlets about 1 mm long, 3-sided or plano-convex, nargubs wut white hyaline cells.
Cyperus michelianus grows in wet places such as the edges of ponds, lakes, and rivers as well as in paddies. It grows in Europe, Africa, and central to southern and eastern Asia and south to Australia.