Centrolepidaceae

4 gen., temp., mainly Aust.

Centrolepis Labill.

20 species in Aust. (19 endemic); all states and territories

Small tufted annuals. Leaves crowded, linear, filiform, basal, 1–5 cm long. Flowering culms leafless, rather rigid, usually several times longer than the leaves but sometimes only slightly exceeding them, with a single short terminal spikelet within 2 green often striate sheathing bracts. Flowers usually bisexual. Stamen 1. Ovary 3- or more-carpellate, superposed in 2 rows to one side of a linear receptacle. Styles 1 to each carpel, with a linear filiform stigma, free or united basally. Fruit a capsule.