Common Name: CAPE-PONDWEED FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb from corm, tuber, or short, thick rhizome, aquatic, glabrous; sap milky. Leaf: alternate, simple, [generally submersed] or floating, petioled, basal in opposite pairs; blade expanded or not, elliptic to lanceolate if floating. Inflorescence: terminal, scape above water, generally spike or panicle with 2--3(10) spike-like branches, subtended by conspicuous, deciduous bract. Flower: bisexual [unisexual], bilateral; perianth parts [0]1[6], generally petal-like, white or yellow; stamens 6--18 in 2 series or 6--50 in 3--4 series; pistils 2--6(9), fused +- 1/2--2/3, separating in fruit, ovary superior, chamber 1, ovules 1--12, style short, stigmatic surface grooved. Fruit: follicle, leathery. Seed: 4; embryo straight.
Genera In Family: 1 genus, +- 54 species: tropical Asia, Australia, southern Africa.
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert F. Thorne, C. Barre Hellquist & Robert R. Haynes
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.