Dioecious, perennial. Leaves held stiffly away from stem; basal sheath 4–5 mm long; ligule deeply cleft, to 4 mm long; blade linear, 1–6 cm long, 0.5–1.2 mm wide, entire, acute or ±truncate with short mucro. Male flowers in a cluster, several to an axil of each modified leaf, perianth segments 3, much shorter than anther mass, united at base; pedicel elongating to c. 1 cm at anthesis; anther mass c. 2 mm long, 6-celled. Female flowers axillary, solitary; perianth segments ±bifid, 2.5–3 mm long; pedicels c. 5 mm, elongating to 1–2 cm in fruit; style as long as or longer than fruiting ovary, projecting beyond perianth; stigma narrowly elliptic to funnel-shaped with sparsely dentate margin. Fruiting carpels ±oblong-cylindric, 1.5–2.5 mm long, l:w 2–3, usually with 1–3 longitudinal verrucose ridges; carpophore 0.1–0.2 mm long at first, thickening and elongating in fruit, extending fruiting carpels well beyond perianth.
Home