Perennial herbs with entire, opposite leaves. Inflorescence a slender spike, terminal on
the stems and branches. Bracts with midrib excurrent into a spine. Modified sterile flowers 0. Flowers solitary in the bracts, bisexual. Bracteoles 2. Tepals 4-5, 1-3(-5)-nerved, narrowly lanceolate, mucronate with the
excurrent midrib. Bracteoles with a spiny awn, the awn exceeding the membranous wings of the lamina. Stamens 5 (in ours); filaments
alternating with pseudostaminodes. Fruits strongly deflexed, closely appressed to the inflorescence axis. Worldwide: 6-8 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World Malawi: 2 taxa. |
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