Hemicarpha micrantha of Michigan Flora. Also long known as Lipocarpha micrantha.

Locally common especially on sandy-mucky shores of receding lakes in southwestern Michigan, uncommon and local elsewhere.

Easily overlooked because of its small size, its rather curly culms quite inconspicuous when growing in a dense stand of Fimbristylis autumnalis, Schoenoplectiella spp. and other associates. In Michigan, Cyperus subsquarrosus is usually found in the same habitats as our Coastal Plain disjuncts, although it is actually of much wider distribution.

A very similar species, Cyperus hemidrummondii Goetgh. (Lipocarpha drummondii (Nees) G. C. Tucker), is known from adjacent Lucas Co., Ohio, and also the Indiana Dunes, and could be found in Michigan. It differs in having an inner scale (wrapping the achene) present and ca. 0.5–0.8 mm long. This scale is vestigial or absent in C. subsquarrosus.