Dioecious perennial herbs, robust, erect, terrestrial or aquatic, rhizomatous, sometimes stoloniferous particularly when aquatic, hairy, predominantly with branched hairs sometimes set in pits; stems solid. Leaves mostly basal; petiolar base expanded and stem-clasping; blade lanceolate, acute, rolled unilaterally in bud; midrib strong; venation pinnate-parallel with tertiary cross veins. Flowers small, regular, solitary or clustered, subsessile to sessile in large, bracteate, terminal pedunculate panicles. Sepals 3. Petals 3, similar to sepals. Stamens 6; staminodes present in female flowers. Ovary superior with 3 fused carpels, trilocular with axile placentation, rudimentary in male flowers; stigma sessile. Fruit drupaceous. Seeds 1-3, endospermic.
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