Perennial herb up to 1 m high.  Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 13-28 cm long. Bracts ovate to orbicular, 2.5 to 3.5 cm in length, obtuse, green with pale edges; pubescent margin; corolla white, tube thin, 2.5 cm in length; lobes acuminate.  Fruit ellipsoid, 2.5 cm.

Herb 30-100 cm high, with robust, branched, rhizome near the surface of the soil. Leaves, 5-25 x 1-3 cm, linear-lanceolate, sessile, with acute apex and cuneate base, glabrous; inflorescence cylindrical, spikes 4-7 x 1.5-2.5 cm, corolla yellowish-green; flower produced in the axil of yellowish bracts; fruit a three-valved capsule with small black arillate seeds.

Annual, monoecious, leafy succulent grass, 1-5 m high.  Leaves alternate at the nodes, 30-150 x 5-15 cm, glabrous or pubescent, linear-lanceolate, acuminate; male inflorescence, a large terminal panicle up to 40 cm long, female inflorescences in axillary sheath cobs, ca. 30 cm in length; fruit a grain or caryopsis white, yellow, reddish or purple.

Annual monoecious herb 70 cm high. Leaves alternate, 7-12 cm long including petiole, base cordate or reniform, apex acute, 3-5 lobed and dentate, blades, scabrous, with appressed golden glandular hairs, triangular- orbicular 7-12 x 6-12 cm;  inflorescence racemose; male heads globose, numerous florets, female head burrlike with hooked bracts, 2 flowers; Achene, 0.9-1.5cm linear, compressed, beaked, smooth.