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Annual or perennial herbs, in the latter case often stoloniferous. Stems usually tufted, erect or arcuate, terete to acutely angled. Leaves reduced to bladeless tubular sheaths often bearing a short erect mucro (vestige of the blade) at the apex. Inflorescence a terminal, ebracteate, single spikelet, sometimes proliferous. Spikelet terete or angular, rarely compressed, few-to many-flowered. Rachilla persistent. Glumes spirally imbricate, sometimes subdistichous, caducous, the lowest 1-2 usually empty and more persistent than the fertile ones (in ser. Aciculares all glumes fertile). Flowers hermaphrodite. Perianth normally consisting of 6-10 bristles, not rarely reduced, very rarely wanting. Stamens 1-3; anthers ovate to linear, the connective produced into a small, rarely subulate appendage. Style usually glabrous, articulated with the nut, the dilated base persistent on the nut, in ser. Pauciflorae not sharply differentiated; stigmas 2-3. Nut 3-or 2-sided, obovate, orbicular, or pyriform, crowned by the enlarged style-base; epidermal cells hexagonal, transversely oblong to linear, or vertically oblong.
Herbs, perennial or annual. Rhizomes short or absent; stolons usually present. Culms tufted or single. Leaves bladeless; sheath apiculate or rarely with a scarious appendage at apex. Inflorescences reduced to a single terminal spikelet, erect, rarely proliferous (bearing plantlets) at base, with few to many bisexual flowers. Glumes spirally imbricate or rarely distichous, oblong, oblong-ovate, lanceolate, or subrounded, firm or membranous, glabrous, usually with a midvein although sometimes indistinct but with lateral veins, margin usually hyaline; basal 1 or 2 glumes usually empty. Perianth bristles (3-)6(-12) or rarely absent, retrorsely spinulose. Stamens 1-3. Style thin; stigmas 2 or 3. Nutlet obovoid, broadly obovoid, or globose-obovoid, 3-sided, biconvex, or plano-convex, smooth, reticulate, cancellate, or rarely pitted; persistent style base expanded, triangular, conic, or variously shaped, sometimes spongy-thickened.
Infl. a solitary, terminal, erect, few-to many-fld spikelet, without a subtending bract at base. Glumes us. spirally imbricate, lowermost 1–2 often sterile and different in shape from the rest, uppermost also often sterile. Fls hermaphrodite. Per. of 0–10 hypog. bristles. Stamens 1, 2 or 3. Style 3-or 2-fid. Nut obovoid to orbicular, biconvex to triquetrous, crowned by the persistent enlarged base of the style. Annual or perennial lfless herbs, stout or slender, often rhizomatous, the culms produced in tufts or in a linear series, each culm bearing 1 or more lf-sheaths and a cluster of roots at base. A cosmopolitan genus of c. 200 spp. Of the 5 N.Z. spp., 1 is endemic, the rest occur also in Australia.
Spikelet solitary, terminal, ovoid to linear, terete or somewhat flattened, few–many-fld; scales spirally imbricate (rarely distichous), often deciduous at maturity, the lower 1–3 empty in most spp., the others floriferous; fls perfect; stamens 1–3; style 2–3-cleft, its expanded base (tubercle) usually enlarged at maturity and persisting on the lenticular or trigonous achene; bristles typically 6, occasionally more, often reduced in number or size, or lacking; herbs of water or wet soil; stems simple, erect to prostrate, the lvs basal, reduced to bladeless sheaths. 150, cosmop. (Heleocharis) The diffuse centromere may contribute to the frequent infraspecific variation in chromosome number.
Plants annual or perennial, the culms simple, terete or angulate, leafless; spike-let solitary, terminal, erect, few-to many-flowered, not involucrate, the scales spirally imbricate; perianth of 1-6 bristles, frequently wanting; stamens 1-3; style 2-to 3-cleft; achene biconvex or 3-angulate, the style base usually persistent as a tubercle.
