Baloskion

Perennial, dioecious herbs. Rhizomes creeping or tufted, woolly. Stems erect, terete, green tissue forming a continuous cylindric outer layer, glabrous or hairy, branched or unbranched. Leaves reduced to sheathing bracts, 10–35 mm long. Male and female inflorescences similar, ovoid, oblong-ovoid or globular, made up of several clusters of spikelets. Male spikelets in distal axils of leaves, 2–many per leaf, many-flowered and subtended by a pair of glume-like floral bracts. Male flowers subtended by 1 glume-like floral bract, with 6 membranous (glume-like) perianth parts. Female spikelets in distal axils of leaves, pedicellate, 1–8 per leaf, several-flowered and subtended by a few glume-like floral bracts. Female flowers with 4 perianth parts; staminodes 2; ovary bilocular; style with 2 branches. Fruit a septicidal capsule.