Culms creeping and procumbent, mat-forming, or aquatic and largely floating, rarely erect and tufted. Involucral bract usually leaf-like, longer than inflorescence.
Length of involucral bract relative to inflorescence can differ depending on the stage of development, and apparently needs to be interpreted from fully mature plants. In some cases bracts are much longer than the inflorescence, and comfortably placed in var. lenticularis. However bracts can intergrade from just longer to shorter than the inflorescence as in var. fluitans, and many specimens display bracts that are both shorter and longer than the inflorescence.
