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Perennial hydrophyte, 30-90 mm high; at first forming green or reddish thalloid body, later erect; stems absent, very short and hardly emerging from thalloid base, when present stems dichotomously branched, woody, ± leafless to densely leafy. Leaves filiform, up to 70 mm long, simple or forked. Spathellas spherical to obovoid, clustered in leaf axils, each subtended by 2 bracts, splitting irregularly at apex to form a wide-mouthed, funnel-shaped cup. Flowers single, borne on thalloid body or in fascicles in axils of leaves or bracts, becoming erect at anthesis. Stamens 2; filaments fused at apex; pollen 2-celled. Ovary ovoid, sessile with many ovules. Flowering time June-Oct. Fruit an ovoid capsule, 8-12-ribbed.
Thalloid part green or reddish, tightly adhering and appressed to the substrate, foliaceous and ± deeply lobed or ribbon-like, dichotomously branched with branches 1–2 mm wide and, depending on the prevailing conditions (water level), divaricating concentrically to form open lace-like patterns c. 3 cm in diameter.
Herb first with thalloid body and later with long stems up to 200 mm and 1 mm in diameter. Leaves floating, filiform, branching dichotomously, 20-50 mm long. Flowers aggregated in dense, sessile clusters at intervals along stem or on thallus. Capsule ellipsoid, with 8-10 ribs.
Stems red, erect, 5–50 cm long, simple or branched, ± leafless to densely leafy, at intervals producing side branches consisting of leaves and clusters of few to many bracteate flowers, or stems absent or very short and hardly emerging from the thalloid base.
Spathellas in clusters in leaf axils, and singly and apparently sessile on the lobes and branches of the thalloid base, each subtended by 2 bracts, spherical to obovoid; the flower inverted (reflexed) in the unruptured spathella before anthesis.
Pedicel long-exserted after anthesis, up to c. 4 mm long, bearing the flower erect from a wide-mouthed funnel-shaped cup.
Capsule 1.25 ? 0.75 mm, subspherical, 8-ribbed, dehiscing into 2 slightly unequal valves, the smaller caducous.
Leaves 1–7 cm long, filiform, simple or repeatedly forked.
Tepals 2, minute, subulate; stamen 1, filament 1 mm long.
Ovary sessile, subglobose, with numerous ovules.
Seeds black, numerous, flattened ovate.
Styles small, 0.2 mm long, subulate.
