Description: Dioecious perennial herbs, tufted or rhizome shortly creeping. Culms green, thin and wiry, branched and often flexuous, bearing distant persistent sheaths with a small rudimentary lamina. Male and female inflorescences not very different. Male spikelets several together, rarely solitary, several flowered. Female spikelets solitary, 1-flowered. Male tepals 6, membranous; stamens 3; anthers 1-locular. Female tepals 6 or 4; staminodes absent; ovary 1-locular; style branches 2 or 3.
Fruit an ovoid, pale, smooth, nut.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 2 species, Australia, & New Zealand. Australia: 2 species (1 species endemic), Qld, N.S.W. Vic., Tas., S.A.
Text by A. L. Quirico & B. G. Briggs
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Empodisma minus |
|
