Scales spirally imbricate, ±scarious; fls perfect, each in the axil of a scale and subtended also by a very thin adaxial inner scale, or the inner scale often reduced or obsolete; stamen 1(2); style bifid; achene lenticular or subterete, minutely apiculate; delicate, glabrous annuals with few and slender lvs; spikes solitary to several, subsessile in a terminal head subtended by 2-3 unequal foliaceous bracts, the lowest of which appears like a continuation of the stem. ±5, mainly trop. Genus perhaps better submerged in Lipocarpha.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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