Scientific name: Cyperus involucratus
Syn: Cyperus alternifolius
Common name: Umbrella plant
Family: Cyperaceae/Sedge family
Origin: Uncertain, probably Africa
This Umbrella plant has been in my little garden since I became a permanent Shah Alam resident nearly seven years ago. My good new neighbour gave me a clump from her own plant and it has thrived well in a container. In fact this hardy plant can thrive in marshy places as well as on dry land. It likes to be grown in full sun although the partial sunshine it gets in my garden has posed no problem. Propagation is really easy - by division (like the 'clump' I started with).
Cyperaceae are a family of herbs that look like grasses. The best known species commercially is the rather delicious and crunchy Water chestnut (Eleocharis tuberosa) and then there is the historically famous Papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus), made into writing paper as far back as 2000 BC in Egypt.
The weather this January is of rather hot spells with thunderstorms every so often in the late afternoons.
Ref:Tropical Horticulture and Gardening/Francis S P Ng. (Ex Libris CNB 1866)
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