Annual or perennial sedges. Culms
tufted, erect, filiform, terete, striate or sulcate. Leaves basal, bladed or
rarely reduced to bladeless sheath, blades narrowly linear or filiform.
Involucral bracts leaf-like or glume-like. Inflorescence simple to decompound
umbel-like or capitate or reduced to a single terminal spikelet. Spikelets
ovoid to ellipsoid; rachilla narrowly winged. Glumes many, all fertile,
spirally imbricate. Perianth segment absent. Stamens 1-3, anthers oblong or linear.
Style articulate with the ovary; stigmas
3. Nutlets obovoid to orbicular, trigonous to triquetrous.