Common Name: BUCKBEAN FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb [annual], +- aquatic, herbage glabrous; rhizomes thick. Leaf: simple or of 3 leaflets, generally alternate; stipules generally 0; petiole bases sheathing. Inflorescence: various. Flower: bisexual [unisexual], radial; sepals 5, united or not; corolla rotate to funnel-shaped, lobes 5, fringed or coarse-hairy marginally or adaxially or not; stamens 5, epipetalous, alternate corolla lobes, anthers sagittate; nectaries generally 5, at ovary base; pistil 1, ovary generally +- superior, chamber 1, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit: capsule [+- fleshy], valves 2--4. Seed: few to many, smooth, shiny.
Genera In Family: 5 genera, +- 70 species: worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert F. Thorne, C. Barre Hellquist & William J. Stone
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: FLOATING-HEART
Leaf: simple, submersed or floating, deeply cordate, generally alternate, those on flowering stems generally opposite; petioles > blades. Inflorescence: +- umbel, in axils of petioles near top of long, petiole-like flower stem, often with clusters of tuberous roots. Flower: corolla rotate, white or yellow, lobes with a glandular appendage near base; filaments < to > style; stigma persistent, 2-lobed. Fruit: irregularly dehiscent.
Etymology: (Greek: Nymphaea-like, from resemblance of leaves to those of water lily) Note: Sometimes in Gentianaceae, but plants differ in their +- aquatic habitats, generally alternate, petioled leaves, and several other ways.