Tufted perennials to 40 cm, with conspicuous basal sheaths. Leaves shorter than stem, to 1 mm wide. Inflorescence of 5-10 spikes, bracts longer or shorter than inflorescence, glumes distichous, keeled, brown to black brown, lowest two sterile; flowers bisexual, perianth bristles, when present, shorter than the nut; stigmas 3.

A genus with c. 80 species, mostly cosmopolitan in distribution; represented in Pakistan by only one speices.

The genus Schoenus is clearly distinguished by the spike structure: glumes distichous; 1-2 fertile glumes in each spike with several sterile glumes both at the base and at the apex. The closest relative is Cladium, which, however, has a noded stem. In Cyperus subg. Mariscus and in Kyllinga the spikes also contain few flowers, but the much smaller spikes are arranged differently, compactly.

Lower Taxon

• Schoenus nigricans Linnaeus