Prostrate, perennial herbs in damp places, often rooting at nodes and matted
Leaves simple, blade often peltate, deeply cordate or divided nearly to base into 3, 5 or more segments, petioled; cauline leaves stipulate
Flowers bisexual, usually in small, simple or branched, pedunculate umbels, rarely in cymes; bracts obsolete or 0
Calyx appearing as annular ring
Petals valvate, ovate, acute, often with incurved tips
Disc ± flat
Stamens with linear filaments; anthers ± as long as filaments; subdidynamous
Fruit lenticular, laterally compressed, orbicular or somewhat depressed, smooth or rugose, of 2 5-ribbed mericarps; oil ducts indistinct or 0
Seeds lenticular
x = 9, 8 or 12 (10, 11) (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Hydrocotyle L.
Linnaeus: 234 (1753)
Sonder: 526 (1862), in part
Schreiber: 1 (1967)
Eichler: 1 (1987)
Burtt: 215 (1991)
Pimenov & Leonov: 62 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 130, more or less cosmopolitan
Southern Africa: Species 3, 2 other naturalised, fairly widespread
References:
BURTT, B.L. 1991. Umbelliferae of southern Africa: an introduction and annotated checklist. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 48
EICHLER, H. 1987. Nomenclatural and bibliographical survey of Hydrocotyle L. (Apiaceae) Part I. Feddes Repertorium 98
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PIMENOV, M.G. & LEONOV, M.V. 1993. The genera of the Umbelliferae. A nomenclator. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
SCHREIBER, A. 1967. Apiaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 103
SONDER, O.W. 1862. Umbelliferae. Flora capensis 2
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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