Eleocharis
Spike Rushes
30 species in Aust. (10 endemic); all states and territories
Annual or perennial herbs, frequently producing slender stolons or sometimes with tubers or descending or ascending rhizomes. Leaves reduced to sheathing scales. Spikelets solitary, terminal, erect, without bracts, few–many-flowered. Glumes spirally imbricate, rarely ± distichous. Flowers bisexual. Perianth up to 10 bristles or absent. Stamens 1–3. Style 2–3-fid. Nut surmounted by the persistent dilated stylar base. (Fig. 46).