Description:

• Sparsely branched, woody, glanduliferous, viscid shrublets or shrubs, with leaves aggregated near tips of branches, trapping but not absorbing contents of insects; root system poorly developed
• Leaves alternate, simple, sessile, flat, linear, lower soon dropping off, margins smooth or with long, filiform teeth, furnished with long, immovable, gland-tipped tentacles, yellowish green; stipules 0
• Inflorescence a few-flowered panicle, pedunculate, flowers solitary or aggregated in axils of linear bracts; pedicels short or long
• Flowers bisexual, regular, hypogynous
• Sepals 5, green, free or fused at base, imbricate, glanduliferous, persistent
• Petals 5, free, imbricate, broadly ovate or obovate, entire, glabrous, purple or crimson to nearly white, persistent or deciduous
• Stamens 5, opposite sepals; filaments distinct, erect; anthers elongate, introrse, incurved in bud, subtended by a basal swelling containing a nectariferous cavity and 2 semifree thecae which open by apical pores, suddenly springing upright and shedding pollen when touched
• Ovary superior, 3-locular, each locule with 1-4 ovules on an axillary placenta; style simple; stigma apical
• Fruit a 3-valved loculicidal capsule
• Seeds fairly large, warty or honeycombed, becoming mucilaginous when moistened, rich in endosperm

Classification Notes: Roridula is sometimes combined with Byblis in the Australian family Byblidaceae, e.g. Hutchinson (1959), Cronquist (1981) and Mabberley (1997)

Nomenclature:

• Roridulaceae
  • Endlicher: 906 (1839) as Droseraceae
  • Sonder: 75 (1860)
  • Drude: 268 (1891) as Droseraceae: Roriduleae
  • Marloth: 26 (1925)
  • Diels: 346 (1930)
  • Obermeyer: 202 (1970)
  • Dahlgren & Van Wyk: 61 (1988)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Monogeneric with 2 species, endemic to the Western Cape

References:

• CRONQUIST, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press, New York
• DAHLGREN, R. & VAN WYK, A.E. 1988. Structures and relationships of families endemic or centered in southern Africa. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 25
• DIELS, L. 1930. Roridulaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, edn 2, 18a
• DRUDE, O. 1891. Droseraceae. Roriduleae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,2
• ENDLICHER, S.L. 1839. Droseraceae. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita 2. Beck, Vienna
• HUTCHINSON, J. 1959. Byblidaceae. The families of flowering plants. Clarendon Press, Oxford
• MABBERLEY, D.J. 1997. The plant-book, edn 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• MARLOTH, R. 1925. Roridulaceae. The flora of South Africa 2. Darter, Cape Town
• OBERMEYER, A.A. 1970. Roridulaceae. Flora of southern Africa 13
• SONDER, O.W. 1860. Droseraceae. Flora capensis 1

Resources:

• Roridulaceae genus: Roridula