Infl. paniculate, or capitate, or a solitary spikelet. Spikelets 1–4-fld, sessile or stalked, fls hermaphrodite, or the uppermost functionally male; rhachilla flexuous or zig-zag between the fls; glumes distichous, keeled, us. nerveless except for a central midrib, some lower glumes and some upper ones often empty. Hypog. bristles 6–1, plumose or ciliate, us. scabrid; or 0. Stamens 3, occ. 2. Style-branches 3, occ. 2. Nut ± trigonous, angles ± thickened. Perennial herbs, with or without creeping rhizomes, or rarely annual. Culms erect, curved, or drooping and rooting below, terete or compressed, branched or unbranched. Lvs basal or cauline, narrow-linear, setaceous and rigid, or flaccid, margins of lamina us. slightly toothed; or all, or the basal lvs reduced to sheathing, us. mucronate bracts. About 100 spp. of temperate regions. Of the 8 N.Z. spp., 2 are endemic; the other 6 occur in Australia as well and 3 of these are recorded from elsewhere in the Pacific.