Perennial, stoloniferous plant, with fibrous roots.  Culms tufted 40-100 cm tall 3.6 mm thick, cylindrical, hollow, transversely septate; spikelets cylindrical, up to 6 cm long x 5-7 mm wide; glumes straw-coloured, oblong to obovate 4-5 mm x 3 mm; stamens 3, style 3-fid.  Achenes oval to obovate 1.5-2 mm long, biconvex, slightly shiny, brownish-yellow.

Annual herb ranging from erect to creeping habit.  Leaves opposite, rough on both surfaces, sessile, elliptic-lanceolate, 8 cm x 2 cm, margin serrulate. Inflorescences axillary on long stalks; flower-heads 1 cm across, florets white; achenes black, wrinkled, without pappus appendages.

Herbaceous, dioecious, climber with glabrous stem, bearing in leaf axils, large, brown, tuberculate bulbils ca 15 cm in diameter; leaves alternate, simple, cordate at base, petioles 6-14 cm long, blades broadly ovate 15-25 cm x 7-20 cm; male flowers borne on clustered spikes up to 20 cm long; female flowers borne on simple spikes 10-15 cm long; fruit a capsule oblong 2.5 cm x1.5 cm.

Annual strong-smelling weedy herb up to 1 m tall. Stems glabrous or pubescent; leaves alternate, ovate, sinuate-lobed, up to 20 cm long; flowers 6-10 cm long, erect, white or tinged with purple; fruit an ovoid capsule ca. 5 cm long, smooth or covered with prickles.

Erect, densely, tufted perennial grass. Leave blades 1 m x 5-15 mm, narrowing towards both ends, margins rough.  Flowering panicles rarely formed; inflorescence up to 60 cm long and drooping, spikes sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate.