Description :

• Submerged annuals, occasionally perennating, monoecious
• Roots 1-3 per node, simple, densely covered with long roothairs, penetrating substratum spirally
• Rhizome creeping, matted, sympodial
• Stems simple or sparsely branched, erect
• Leaves ternate, opposite or alternate, linear, sessile, with a free cupular sheath subtending axils, or leafbase expanded into a folded sheath forming auriculate stipules above; axillary scales 2, minute
• Flowers unisexual, solitary, or with a collateral vegetative bud or one of opposite sex beside it
• Male flowers ephemeral, on long filaments (pedicels); anthers 4- or 8-sporangiate, with an apical knob; pollen globose, copious
• Female flowers surrounded by a spathe, solitary or pseudo-umbellate; carpels (1-)4 or 5(-9), surrounded by a closely appressed flask-shaped 'perianth'; style exserted, tubular; stigma spoon- or funnel-shaped, large, with wavy membranous margins, ephemeral; ovule pendulous
• Fruit a somewhat bean-shaped drupelet, stipitate and crowned with persistent style, pectinate on dorsal and occasionally on ventral side
• Seed with a long, spirally coiled hypocotyl
• x = 6 (7, 8) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Zannichellia L.
  • Linnaeus: 969 (1753)
  • Bennett: 50 (1897)
  • Obermeyer: 77 (1966)
  • Cook: 222 (1990)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species ± 6 or 1 polymorphic species: Zannichellia palustris L., cosmopolitan, throughout region in brackish pans in arid areas and in estuaries and lagoons