Kobresia Willd.

Perennial herbs with short rhizome, monoecious, rarely dioecious. Stems tufted, arising from the centre of the basal leaves, trigonous, solid, smooth, or scaberulous at the apex. Leaves tristichous, narrowly linear, often convolute, crowded near the base of the stems or also cauline; margins scabrous at least towards the apex; lower sheaths bladeless. Inflorescence consisting of a single terminal spike or of several panicled spikes; spikes usually androgynaeceous, i.e. ♂ above, ♀ below (rarely wholly male or female?). Flowers unisexual, achlamydeous (destitute of perianth or hypogynous bristles); each male flower consisting of 3 stamens only, subtended by a glume; filaments free; anthers linear; each female flower a naked pistil inserted on an axis of next lower rank (rachilla) and subtended by a 2-keeled adaxial prophyll (‘adossiertes Vorblatt’) with free or more or less connate margins; rachilla subtended by a glume (bract) and often bearing one to several male flowers above the female one, but not rarely reduced to a setiform or flat (very rarely vestigial) rudiment. Stigmas 3 (2 in a single extra-Malesian sp.). Nut trigonous (biconvex in the digynous sp.), oblong or narrowly obovoid, free (when the prophyll is open or almost so), or enclosed in the more or less sac-like prophyll.