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Vascular Plants of California
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Bergia
WATERFIRE


Higher Taxonomy
Family: ElatinaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

Common Name: WATERWORT FAMILY
Habit: Annual, short-lived perennial herb, in or near water; roots fibrous, from taproot or not, generally from lower leaf axils also. Stem: generally soft. Leaf: simple, opposite, +- 4-ranked; stipules scarious. Inflorescence: flowers in upper axils, 1 or few in clusters. Flower: small, inconspicuous, radial, bisexual; sepals, petals 2--5, equal in number, generally free; ovary spheric, styles 3--5, short. Fruit: capsule, septicidal, +- spheric, ovoid, or depressed-ovoid, walls thin; chambers 2--5, each several to many-seeded. Seed: small; surface net-like or glossy.
Genera In Family: 2 genera, 50 species: +- worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: Gordon C. Tucker & Evanielis U. Grissom
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Bergia
Stem: prostrate to ascending; branches 0 to many; base +- woody or not. Leaf: blade > petiole, elliptic, serrate, base wedge-shaped, tip acute. Flower: sepals deltate; petals oblong, membranous, glabrous; stamens 5--10, filaments +- = petals, anthers elliptic; styles 5. Fruit: ovoid; chambers 5, each many-seeded. Seed: not visible through fruit wall, oblong, +- curved, brown; surface +- net-like.
Species In Genus: +- 25 species: generally Old World tropics, 1 North America. Etymology: (P.J. Bergius, student of Linnaeus, 1730--1790)
Jepson eFlora Author: Gordon C. Tucker & Evanielis U. Grissom
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

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Citation for this treatment: Gordon C. Tucker & Evanielis U. Grissom 2012, Bergia, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=10152, accessed on April 25, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 25, 2024.