Platycaulos

Plants forming rounded cushions, or more commonly tangled. Rhizomes 0 or short. Culms +/- compressed, branching. Leaf sheaths convolute, persistent, green, with a stout green apical mucro. Maleinflorescence spicate, with large spathes, small well-defined sessile spikelets and with most bracts fertile. Malespikelets: perianth cartilaginous, outer lateral segments conduplicate, carinate, villous on carina, all segments imbricate; anthers exserted from perianth at anthesis. Femaleinflorescence similar to male. Femalespikelets: florets somewhat larger than males; staminodes well developed; ovary 1-3-locular; styles 3, free, plumose, exserted from bracts at anthesis. Fruit a 2-locular, dehiscent capsule; seeds white with a fragile surface.