| The leaves are peculiar in structure, appearing as a whorl of reduced scalelike structures at each node. |
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| In some genera the unlobed, usually alternate leaves are reduced to scalelike structures. |
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| The perigynium may tightly envelop the achene or it may be inflated like a bladder, flattened and scalelike, or even fleshy and edible. |
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| The greatly atrophied, scalelike, vestigial wings are inconspicuous and nonfunctioning. |
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| The leaves usually are large and evergreen in tropical species, deciduous in temperate species, and needlelike or scalelike in desert species. |
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| The plants are characterized by slender, green, often drooping branches that are deeply grooved and that bear, at intervals, whorls of tiny, scalelike leaves. |
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| The leaves are spreading and awl-shaped on young shoots but are characteristically small, scalelike, and appressed to the branch on older branchlets. |
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| Phylloglossum has a bulblike underground base, a few spike-shaped, succulent leaves, and one stalk bearing a cluster of scalelike leaves bearing sporangia. |
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| The hairs are either in groups, scalelike, or stellate. |
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