Scleria

noun

Herbs usually perennial, sometimes annual, cespitose or not, rhizomatous or not. Culms solitary or not, unbranched proximal to inflorescence, trigonous, (6-) 10-100(-125) cm (high-climbing into trees), weak or wiry. Leaves few to many per culm, cauline, 3-ranked; sheaths present; ligules usually well developed, sometimes obsolete; blades well developed (or rudimentary, sometimes absent on proximal leaves), shorter than, equaling, or overtopping culms, plane, keeled, or revolute, 0.5-9 mm wide, stiff, with prominent midvein, glabrous, scabrous, or pubescent. Inflorescences terminal, often axillary, sometimes pseudolateral, panicles, spikes, or 1 or more capitate or fasciculate clusters; spikelets 1-100+; bracts 1-3, ascending or erect, bristle-shaped, awl-shaped, or leaflike, sometimes appearing to be continuation of culm, 10-150 mm, shorter than or exceeding spikelets, glabrous or ciliate. Spikelets: scales 3-10+, each subtending flower, distichous, proximal 2-4 scales empty, proximal fertile scale pistillate, distal fertile scales staminate or sometimes empty; occasionally some spikelets entirely pistillate or staminate. Flowers unisexual; perianth absent; stamens 1-3; anthers 2-4 mm, apex usually mucronate or awned; styles linear, 2-3-fid, base deciduous or persistent, hypogynium rudimentary or prominent, slender or enlarged. Achenes trigonous or rounded, 1-4 mm, smooth, tuberculate, verrucose, or reticulate, occasionally pubescent.