Herb, perennial, monoecious, rhizomatous; sand-binding and cluster roots present. Culms simple or occasionally branched. Sheaths persistent. Spikelets: male spikelets solitary and terminal on culms; female spikelets solitary in axils of lower sheaths; male and female spikelets on the same culm. Male spikelets surrounded by spathes, several-flowered, all glumes fertile. Female spikelets 1-flowered, with 1 or 2 sterile lower glumes. Male flowers: tepals 6, outer tepals keeled, stamens 3, anthers exserted; pistillode not developed. Female flowers: tepals 6, ovary 1-locular; style unbranched; staminodes not developed. Fruit a hard, bony, indehiscent nut, shed with persistent tepals. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma not interrupted, of 1 layer of elongated peg-cells, inward-projecting epidermal cells (protective cells) partially lining the substomatal cavities, epidermal cells with radial walls thickened on outer wall and outer part of radial walls, radially elongated epidermal cells forming mounds on the culm surface; culms solid with vascular bundles in the central ground tissue.
Home