Cyperus permacer sensu C.B. Clarke is not the same as C. permacer sensu Hooper in Flora of West Tropical Africa. A thorough study of herbarium specimens proved the latter to be a mere variety of C. tenuiculmis Boeckeler. The taxonomic identity of C. permacer itself is also unclear, the holotype being a poor specimen. It possibly is only a depauperate form of C. dilatatus Schumach.