Hypolaena
Perennial, dioecious herbs. Rhizome hard and creeping or tufted, ± woolly hairy. Stems erect or ascending, subterete or terete, greyish-green, thin and wiry, branched and often flexuose. Leaves reduced to persistent sheathing bracts. Male and female inflorescences dissimilar. Male spikelets arranged in a branched inflorescence, each spikelet stalked, many-flowered and subtended by several glume-like floral bracts. Male flowers with 6 membranous (glume-like) perianth parts. Female spikelets terminal, sessile, solitary or 2 or 3 together, 1-flowered and subtended by 1–3 glume-like floral bracts which are much longer than those of male spikelets. Female flowers with 6 perianth parts; staminodes 3 or absent; ovary unilocular; style with 3 branches. Fruit a small ovoid nut.
8 species endemic in Australia, 1 species in Victoria.
Conn, B.J. (1994). Restionaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 179–190. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
