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ERIOCAULACEAE

Syngonanthus

Ruhland

Source:

SSA

Synonym(s):

Paepalanthus N.E.Br.: 59 (1897).

Description:

Small, tufted perennial herbs. Roots white-spongy, with latticed appearance. Leaves basal and tufted. Capitula on hairy or glabrescent, erect scapes, which are sheathed at base; involucral bracts few or usually 0; receptacle hairy. Male flowers: sepals 3, +/- free, ciliate; petals forming a funnel-shaped, 3-lobed, glabrous, inrolled tube; anthers 2-thecous. Female flowers: sepals as in male flowers; petals fused in middle, free below and above; ovary 3-locular; style terete; stigma 3-branched, encircled by 3 epapillate appendages. Capsule 3-locular, thin-walled. Seeds ellipsoid, ribbed, minutely rostrate.

Distribution:

Species 80, mostly in South America with few in Africa; 1 in sthn Afr.: Syngonanthus wahlbergii (Wickstr. ex Korn.) Ruhland, Northern Province and Mpumalanga.

Eriocaulon

Source:

SSA

Description:

Small, tufted, perennial, marsh herbs. Leaves radical, numerous, grass-like, often with a latticed tissue-pattern below. Capitula usually white-hairy, rarely glabrous, borne on +/- erect scapes surrounded by a closed sheath below, longer than leaves. Maleflowers: sepals 2 or 3, variously connate, ciliate, bearded or glabrous at apex; petals 2 or 3, free, sometimes rudimentary or 0, inserted on raised flower axis, usually with apical gland, often hairy on inner face, ciliate or bearded above; stamens 4 or 6. Female flowers: sepals and petals usually free; staminodes 0; ovary 2- or 3-locular; style branches 2 or 3, simple, without appendages. Capsule 2- or 3-locular. Seeds ellipsoid or globose. x= 8, 10 (6) (aneuploids, high polyploidy).

Distribution:

Species 250-400, tropical and subtropical; 12 in sthn Afr., widespread, excluding Western Cape; on river banks, in seepage areas and in the shallow waters of lakes and pools.

Paepalanthus

Kunth

Description:

Annual or perennial herbs; stem short or elongate. Leaves spirally arranged, narrow, thin to thick and coriaceous. Capitula single or in umbels, villous; floral bracts present; flowers 2- or 3-merous; petals eglandular. Male flowers: sepals free except at extreme base; petals connate into a glabrous infundibular tube bearing stamens on its truncate upper margin; petal tube finally involute and enclosing stamens; rudimentary pistil present; stamens as many as petals, white. Female flowers: sepals free except at extreme base, and usually becoming rigid at maturity; petals free; style with simple or bifid glandular appendages alternating with stigmas. Seeds variable, often with longitudinal ridges.

Distribution:

Species

Source:

SSTA

Mesanthemum

Description:

Tufted perennial herbs of medium size, in marshes, or totally submersed aquatics; rhizome vertical to horizontal, short in aquatic species. Leaves in rosettes, linear, spongy or very thin (in the aquatic Mesanthemum reductum Hess). Capitula 1

Distribution:

Species17, trop. Africa and Madagascar; sthn trop. Afr. 6, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique.

Source:

SSTA

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ERIOCAULACEAE