Herb, evergreen, dioecious, perennial, plants often resembling loose ‘cushions’ of much-branched stems and leaves, flat on the ground or raised to 6 cm above ground level on the stem and/or slender vertical stilt-roots; older plants sometimes dying in the centre and forming spreading rings to 30 cm across. Stems ascending or erect, 5–15 cm long, covered with imbricate bases of crowded leaves, bearing peduncles and usually adventitious stilt-roots. Leaves linear, 3–12 cm long, flexible or rigid; base reddish with a scarious margin; lamina terete, 0.5–1 mm diam., coarsely striate, not scabrid, acute. Peduncles terete, 1.5–4.5 cm long, 0.4–0.5 mm diam., not scabrid. Inflorescences of 2–5 subsessile flowers; floral bracts (1–) 2, deltoid or broad deltoid, 0.7–2.1 mm long. Spathes subtending the inflorescence usually persistent, subulate or narrow deltoid, 5–8 mm long, scarious, acuminate. Upper bracts deltoid, membranous, 1–3 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 6, ovate to lanceolate, 3.5–4.5 mm long, outer tepals slightly longer than inner, light-brown, scarious, keeled, sub-acute to acuminate, margins membranous; filaments 3.2–3.8 mm long; anthers 1.4–2.8 mm long. Female flowers: tepals 6, 2.6–3 mm long; style branches exceeding tepals, strongly recurved. Capsule 1.7–2.3 mm long, c. 2 mm broad. Seeds with a pattern of large flat lobed cells.
Home