Alternative names: Dicrastylidaceae nom. invalid.

Description:
Shrubs or shrublets, often densely clothed with much-branched hairs, rarely glabrous; stem erect, branches solid, woody; leaves simple, exstipulate, sessile or subsessile, decussate or verticillate, reticulate, often densely clothed with branched (more or less dendriform) hairs, rarely glabrous, mostly rugose or bullate, entire.

Inflorescence terminal or axillary, dichasial, arranged in spicate, capitate or corymbose clusters; flowers 4-8-merous, each with a bract and 2 bracteoles at the base of their pedicels, bisexual, actinomorphic or zygomorphic; calyx tubular, 4-8-lobed, not accrescent, mostly densely hairy outside, glabrous inside; corolla tubular, 4-8-lobed or truncate, regular, unequally lobed or 2-lipped; stamens 4-8, inserted in the corolla tube, or on the rim of the truncate corolla outside S. Aust.; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed, 2-lobed; lobes free and divergent in the lower half, longitudinally dehiscent, often rounded at the base; disk absent; ovary superior, bicarpellary, syncarpous, 2-4-celled, with 1 or 2 ovules in each cell on an axile placenta; style terminal on the ovary, entire at the tip, 2-lobed or deeply 2-branched.

Fruit dry, rarely a drupe, 1- or 2-seeded; seeds with albuminous endosperm (exalbuminous in Spartothamnella) and a straight embryo.

Distribution:  10 genera and about 102 species all endemic to Australia.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: This family has often been included in the Verbenaceae from which it is distinguished by its fruit being dry and indehiscent, seeds albuminous and woolly indumentum of much-branched hairs. In contrast to Verbenaceae, Chloanthaceae is endemic to mainland Australia (Munir, A. A. (1978) Brunonia 1 :407-692).

Key to Genera:

1. Stem and leaves grey-puberulent or almost glabrous; cymes axillary, with 1-3 flowers; stamens 4, anthers l-celled by fusion of the lobes; fruit a succulent drupe	SPARTOTHAMNELLA 3.
1. Stem and leaves densely woolly-tomentose; cymes terminal, arranged in elongated spikes or globose heads, more than 3-flowered; stamens 5 or 6, anthers 2-celled; fruit dry
2. Style deeply 2-branched; stamens extending from inside the corolla tube	DICRASTYLIS 1.
2. Style entire or minutely notched; stamens extending from the margin of the corolla tube between the lobes	NEWCASTELIA 2.

Author: Prepared by A. A. Munir