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Capsule ovoid to ellipsoid, usually 8-ribbed, splitting into 2 equal carpels, the suture occurring along 2 of the ribs (except in L. warmingiana where ribs are absent) so that each valve appears to be 5-ribbed after dehiscence; the ribs sometimes produced onto the gynophore and then preventing the valves from falling.
Leaves filamentous or reduced and scale-like; filamentous leaves usually divided, densely arranged or scattered; scale-like leaves variable, dentate or lobed or entire, borne throughout the length of the stems and branches or only on the flowering branches.
Flowers solitary and apical on branches, also in the angles of the uppermost branches, each flower at first inverted (reflexed) within the unruptured spathella (spathaceous bracts); spathella dehiscing irregularly at the apex, or laterally.
Submerged freshwater herbs; basal part thalloid, foliaceous, ± deeply divided or ribbon-like, bearing endogenous buds on the surface or margins from which shoots arise; shoots with well developed, usually branched stems.
Ovary sessile or carried on a ± well developed gynophore, ovoid to ellipsoid, unilocular with central placentation; styles 2, sessile, usually free, of varying length and shape.
Stamens 1 or 2 (rarely 3), with filaments joined in the lower part for at least one-third of their length, usually longer than the ovary; pollen in monads or diads.
Seeds small, reddish-brown to blackish, ellipsoid, ± dorsiventrally flattened, with reticulate testa.
Pedicel long-exserted from the spathella after anthesis, bearing the flower erect.
Tepals 2, linear or filiform, one on each side of the andropodium.