Angolaea

Herbs attached to rocks in fast-flowing freshwater, resembling a seaweed; stem and primary branches thick, transparent, green. Leaves dichotomously divided into linear segments. Flowers bisexual, each enclosed in an irregularly bursting spathella (a membranous sac), either solitary near sinus of dichotomies or 2-5 in umbellate cymes near ends of branchlets; bracts similar to leaves but shorter and with flattened segments; spathella calyx-like, pedicellate and bursting by 3-5 unequal lobes. Tepals 2, minute. Stamens 3(4); filaments slightly flattened, free or 2 connate at base; anthers 2-thecous, oblong; pollen grains in diads, pale yellow. Ovary 1-locular, stipitate, ellipsoid to narrowly obovoid, somewhat shorter than stamens; stigma subsessile, capitate, obliquely ovoid to hemispherical, papillose; placenta central, swollen, multi-ovulate. Capsule ovoid, 8-ribbed, dehiscing by 2 equal valves. Seeds many.