Citation: L. Sp. Pl. 367 (1753).

Derivation: Greek elatine, name of a plant, perhaps a toad-flax.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Prostrate annual herbs, glabrous; leaves opposite, thin, with minute glands along the margins, attenuate to a short petiole; stipules membranous, more or less entire, connate at first, deciduous.

Flowers solitary in leaf axils; sepals 3 or 4, obtuse, free, rather inconspicuous, thin, greenish, flat to somewhat concave, not keeled; petals as many as the sepals, pink, deciduous; stamens 3 or 4; ovary cells 3 or 4, the styles sharply demarcated from the somewhat depressed apex of the ovary; capsules depressed-globose, the walls membranous, dehiscing opposite the sepals.

Seeds more or less cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, with longitudinal ribs and transverse lines.

Distribution:  About 20 species in most parts of the world.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available