Herb, perennial, dioecious or through much of the range parthenocarpic and female only, caespitose, the base pubescent. Culms simple or sparsely branched, terete, glabrous, striate, with persistent appressed sheaths. Male and female spikelets very different in appearance, solitary or several together at one or several upper nodes. Male spikelets laterally compressed, pendulous on slender pedicels, with spreading glumes. Female spikelets erect, ovoid, not laterally compressed; glumes broad-ovate with short slender awns. Flowers with 5 tepals. Male flowers with 3 stamens, anthers not exserted. Female flowers with 2 ovary loculi and 2 style-branches shortly united at the base. Fruit a capsule. Seeds broad-ellipsoid, surface covered with convex cells in irregular longitudinal lines. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 1 layer of elongated peg cells, interrupted by greatly enlarged epidermal cells that extend outwards forming longitudinal ridges overarching the stomates and that mostly extend inwards to (and often interrupt) the parenchyma sheath over sclerenchyma girders opposite the outer vascular bundles; pillar and protective cells absent, central cavity present.
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