“There are over 4,000 species of sedges [Cyperaceae, in about 70 genera] found worldwide. They are most abundant in the tropics and most commonly associated with wetland or riparian areas and poor soils. They are well represented in Micronesia where there is no shortage of poor soils and wet areas” (Costion and Lorence 2012).

In the following discussion, we refer briefly to a series of sedge species in Cyperus that are relatively common on more than one island in Micronesia and in some cases have become weedy species on these islands; these sedge species, to a minor extent overall, have had some traditional and/or only recent ethnobotanical uses in Micronesian islands. The generic name Cyperus derives its name from the Latin ‘cyperos,’which is a derivative of the Greek word ‘kypeiros,’ an ancient Greek name used by Homer and Theophrastus for several plants classified in the genus Cyperus.