Submerse aquatic herbs. Rhizome creeping, monopodial, with many vascular bundles; each node with 1– 5 branched roots and a short erect stem bearing 2– 7 leaves; scales ovate, scarious. Leaves with the sheath compressed, persisting longer than the blade, leaving a scar when shed and giving the stem an annular appearance; blade linear, margins entire but for the distal part which becomes serrulate or spinulose, apex ± toothed. Flowers solitary and terminal, enclosed in a leaf similar to others, a bud in the axil of the penultimate leaf lengthening to give rise to a sympodium. Staminate flowers stalked. Pistillate flowers sessile or shortly stalked. Fruit with stony pericarp, laterally compressed, semi-circular to elliptic in outline, with dorsal ridges and a beak. Worldwide: 4 species in tropical and subtropical areas of the Old World. Mozambique: 2 taxa. |
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| Species | FZ divisions | Content |
| rotundata (Ehrenb. & Hempr.) Asch. | N,GI,M | |
| serrulata (R. Br.) Asch. & Magnus | N,GI,M |