Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Mostly herbaceous, perennial marsh plants; leaves radical, distichous, sheathing.

Flowers bisexual, each solitary within a broad imbricate rigid bract, and the whole forming a terminal head or spike; calyx irregular, of 1 broad segment enveloping the corolla, and 2 smaller lateral bract-like segments; corolla tubular below, 3-lobed above; perfect stamens 3, attached to the base of the corolla lobes and usually alternating with 3 staminodes; ovary superior, imperfectly 3-celled, with numerous orthotropous ovules; styles 3-branched; placentas basal or parietal.

Capsule opening loculicidally in 3 valves and sometimes circumsciss near the summit; seeds small, numerous, longitudinally ribbed.

Distribution:  2 genera with about 250 species mainly in warm areas, especially America. (Achlyphila from Venezuela is monotypic).

Biology: No text

Author: Prepared by J.P. Jessop