Submerged, rhizomatous annual or short-lived perennial; turions terminal on rhizomes or at junction of leaf sheath and rhizome; stems erect, rarely formed. Leaves to 10 cm long, 0.5 mm wide; apex obtuse to acute, finely serrulate, rarely truncate or bidentate. Inflorescence presented at water surface for pollination on peduncle (3–) 5–80 cm, longer in deeper water; longer peduncles ±coiled; shorter peduncles only slightly coiled. Flowers (1 or) 2, with (6–) 8–16 (–26) carpels. Carpels sessile or subsessile; stipe always shorter than carpel. Fruiting carpels flask-shaped, slightly asymmetric, 1.3–2.5 mm long, 0.7–1.5 mm wide; endocarp with short stylar beak less than 0.2 mm long, a longitudinal opercular ridge, and an ovate perforation on each side.
Growing in hypersaline ephemeralor perennial shallow water bodies mainly in the winter rainfall zone. Alsogrows in marine habitats in the mid to lower eulittorial zone on tidal flatswith the seagrasses Lepilaena marina, Zostera muelleri and Z.mucronata.
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