Annual herbs or low shrublets, usually of moist places, with branches either deciduous from a persistent woody crown, or perennial, often creeping and rooting; often aromatic
Leaves decussate (rarely verticillate), simple, sessile or subsessile, serrate or rarely entire; stipules paired, interpetiolar, small, deciduous or persistent
Flowers bisexual, regular, small, axillary, pedicellate or subsessile, persistent, solitary or in dichasia; bracts resembling reduced stipules or 0
Sepals 2-5, free or fused at base, imbricate with outermost somewhat longer than others
Petals 3-5, free, imbricate, shorter or longer than sepals
Stamens as many as petals or twice as many; filaments of outer whorl alternating with petals and often expanded below, those of inner whorl shorter, sometimes slightly expanded; anthers 2-thecous, opening by longitudinal slits, introrse, versatile, dorsifixed
Ovary superior, 3-5-locular; placenta axile; styles 3-5, free with apical, usually swollen stigmas; ovules many, attached to a convex placenta with axis protruding and subulate above
Fruit a septicidal capsule
Seeds subcylindrical, obtuse, straight or somewhat reniform to horseshoe-shaped, smooth or reticulate; endosperm 0
Nomenclature:
Elatinaceae
Linnaeus: 367 (1753)
Linnaeus: 172 (1754)
Linnaeus: 1309 (1771)
Harvey: 115 (1860)
Wild: 373 (1961)
Friedrich-Holzhammer: 1 (1968)
Obermeyer: 23 (1976)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Genera 2, species ± 30, cosmopolitan, inhabiting damp areas such as marshes, riverbanks or temporary pools
Southern Africa: Genera 2, species 11
References:
FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M. 1968. Elatinaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 92
HARVEY, W.H. 1860. Elatinaceae. Flora capensis 1
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1771. Mantissa plantarum 2. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
OBERMEYER, A.A. 1976. Elatinaceae. Flora of southern Africa 22
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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.
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