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Yellow nutsedge is a common lawn and garden weed that is found almost throughout the United States, and probably most of the northern hemisphere.  It is usually referred to as simply nutsedge or nut grass, due to it's grass like appearance.  Even though the plant looks like a grass and will grow in your lawn like a grass, it's actually a member of the sedge family.  This family of plants also includes the commonly eaten water chestnut.

Nutsedge has a lighter green color than most lawn grasses and tends to grow faster than other grasses.  This makes it easy to spot in a lawn, especially in summer when other grasses have either slowed their growth or have gone dormant.  Since I don't water my lawn, in the heat of the summer I will see these plants standing tall in the heat and dry conditions.

It's considered an invasive plant and is hard to eliminate.  The key to getting rid of this weed is persistence.  Simply kill it over and over until it's finally gone.  Nutsedge reproduces either with seeds grown at the top of the plant or from tubers (or nuts) grown in the root system.  Here is a photo of one of the tubers:

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When these plants are pulled out by the weeds the tubers simply break off and grow new plants to replace the one that was pulled.  Similarly, herbicides such as Round-up simply kill the top of the plant and not the tubers.  Killing one plant could result in four or five new plants.  It's best to kill these plants when they are small, before the tubers have a chance to develop.  

In a garden you may feel you have killed all the nutsedge growing in a given year.  However, the tubers can lay dormant for several years in the ground.  Tilling the soil for next years garden will simply bring new tubers back near the surface for new plants to spring back to life.  

Killing the plant with herbicides can also be tricky.  The plant has a glossy almost waxy texture that encourages the herbicide to simply run off.  The addition of a surfactant to your herbicide will help the liquid adhere to the plant so it can be absorbed.  Standard lawn weed killers will not kill this plant but there are herbicides that are targeted to nutsedge that will not kill your lawn grass.

If you want to get rid of these plants completely you have a daunting task ahead of you.  Whether your pulling them up or using a herbicide, maintain your persistence and expect to be challenged.