Perennial or annual, tufted or rhizomatous sedges. Culms erect, nodeless (in Australia). Leaves basal, often reduced to sheaths. Involucral bracts usually 1, exceeding inflorescence (in Australia). Inflorescences terminal, spikelets clustered sparsely or densely in heads or panicle-like; glumes spirally arranged; hypogynous bristles absent; stamens 3; style 3-fid, not enlarged at base, deciduous. Nut trigonous, rarely lenticular, usually obovate, smooth, with a hypogynous cup-shaped or 3-lobed disc, the disc caducous or persistent.
About 90 species, mostly in Africa (Ethiopia to South Africa, Madagascar), 2 species in Australia.
