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Electronic Flora of South Australia family Fact Sheet

Elatinaceae

Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs, sometimes aquatic; leaves opposite or whorled, simple, entire or toothed, stipulate.

Flowers bisexual, regular, axillary or in cymes; sepals 3-5, free or fused, imbricate; petals 3-5, free, imbricate; twice as many as the petals or as many as and opposite the petals, free; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; ovary superior, 3-5-celled; style 3-5, free; ovules numerous on axile placentas, anatropous.

Fruit a small more or less septicidal capsule; seeds lacking endosperm, straight or slightly curved, oblong, obtuse, wrinkled.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: 2 genera and about 40 species, almost cosmopolitan. (This treatment is largely based on Verdon in Jessop (1981) Flora of Central Australia 228-229.)

Key to Genera:
1. Stems hairy when young; sepals keeled, acute to attenuate; capsules subglobose
BERGIA 1.
1. Stems glabrous; sepals not keeled, obtuse; capsules depressed-globose
ELATINE 2.

Author: Prepared by J.P. Jessop


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