Description: Dioecious perennial herbs, tufted or with a hard creeping rhizome. Culms wiry, branched and often flexuous, leafless except for the sheaths which may bear a rudimentary lamina. Male and female inflorescences quite dissimilar. Male spikelets paniculate, pedicellate, several-flowered. Male tepals 6; stamens 3; anthers 1-locular; filaments very short. Female spikelets 1-flowered, terminal, sessile, solitary or 2 or 3 together; glumes much longer than in the male. Female tepals 6, short, broad, membranous, shorter than the ovary. Ovary 1-locular, with 1-ovule; style branches 3.
Fruit a small nut, shed with the thickened receptacle attached (which may function in fruit-dispersal by ants).
Distribution and occurrence: World: 8 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all States except N.T.
Text by A. L. Quirico & B. G. Briggs
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Hypolaena fastigiata |
|
