Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Rush-like perennials; leaves reduced to brown sheathing bracts, imbricate at the base of and distant along the stem, split on one side and not tubular (unlike Cyperaceae).

Flowers unisexual and mostly dioecious, or rarely bisexual, arranged in spikelets or panicles, rarely solitary, each flower in the axil of a rigid glume; perianth of 6 or fewer scale-like segments, rarely 0; male flowers usually with 3 stamens opposite the inner perianth-segments; anthers 1-celled, oblong and dorsifixed (in S.Aust. genera), introrse by longitudinal slits, a rudimentary ovary occasionally present in the centre of the flower; female flowers with a 1-3-celled ovary, and 1-3 slender styles or branches; staminodes present in some species; ovule I in each cell, pendulous, orthotropous.

Fruit a capsule or nut; seed albuminous.

Distribution:  30 genera and more than 250 species almost limited to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. (Evans & Johnson (1966) Contr. N.S.W. natn. Herb., Fl. ser. no. 25).

Biology: No text

Key to Genera:

1. Flowers distinct, not arranged in spikelets; glumes gaping	LEPYRODIA 5.
1. Flowers aggregated in definite spikelets; glumes closely imbricate
2. Leaf sheaths broad, loose and soon deciduous	LEPIDOBOLUS 3.
2. Leaf sheaths persistent
3. Spikelets sessile	EMPODISMA 1.
3. Spikelets pedicellate
4. Anthers exserted beyond the glumes (in the S.Aust. species)
5. Spikelets in a raceme or panicle	RESTIO 7.
5. Spikelets on simple peduncles in the fascicles of leaf-like branches	LOXOCARYA 6.
4. Anthers not exserted
6. Stems much-branched	HYPOLAENA 2.
6. Stems simple, occasionally with 1 or 2 branches or branched at the base	LEPTOCARPUS 4.

Author: Prepared by C. Marsden