Perennials. Culms creeping. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate, stiff; ligule ciliate. Inflorescence monoecious, composed of a single deciduous raceme with foliaceous rachis bearing 1–2 persistent bisexual or female spikelets at the base and several deciduous staminate spikelets above, spikelets secund in one row; staminate portion of the rachis shedding the spikelets after fertilization and folding onto the fertile spikelets, thus enclosing them in a capsule-like fruit-case. Bisexual spikelets adaxial, biconvex, florets 2; lower glume small or suppressed; upper glume equal to spikelet, 5-veined; lower floret neuter or staminate, its lemma resembling upper glume, palea often deeply split; upper floret fertile, thinly papery, its lemma with flat margins and hairy apex. Staminate spikelets similar but both florets staminate, smaller than the bisexual florets, with thinner scales. x = 9.

Two species: Madagascar to Polynesia, on sandy seashores; one species in China.

(Authors: Chen Shouliang (陈守良); Sylvia M. Phillips)