Dioecious herbs, the rhizome thin, fragile, with 1 root at each node, the inter-nodes 1-3.5 cm long, the scales at the base of the lateral shoots lanceolate to obovate, scarious, faintly pubescent, keeled, 1-2.5 mm long, obtuse and sometimes slightly incised apically, the margin entire; lateral shoots 6-40 mm long, erect, bearing 2 obovate scales ca. halfway up or somewhat higher, and with 2-3 pairs of leaves in an apical pseudo-whorl, the scales 3-6 mm long, often with secondary shoots arising from their axils. Leaf-blades oblong, ovate, or elliptic to lanceolate, rather rigid, obtuse apically, cuneate basally, the margin finely spinulose, 5-22 mm long and 2-8 mm wide, 3-8 cross-veins ascending at angles of 60-80? on each side of the midrib, joining the intramarginal veins, the midrib uniting with the intramarginal veins just below the apex; petioles 2-5 mm long. Inflorescences with the spathal leaves lanceolate, slightly unequal, acute, 5-8 mm long, somewhat enlarged after anthesis, sessile in the axil of the uppermost leaf, containing only 1 flower. Staminate flowers with the pedicels 3 mm long, the tepals elliptic, 4 mm long and 2 mm wide, convex, transparent with a dark stripe in the middle, apicu-late, the anthers oblong, 2-thecate, 4 mm long. Carpellate flowers 6-7 mm long, consisting of a minute perianth and a sessile ovary gradually continuing into the hypanthium, the styles 2, 3, or 5, 10-30 mm long, with conspicuous papillae. Fruits globose, 2-3 mm in diameter, the beak 4-5 mm long, projecting between the spathal leaves after anthesis, the pericarp fleshy; seeds 10-20, subspherical, apiculate at both ends, the testa reticulate.
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