Description:

• Annuals associated with water, erect, glabrous, somewhat soft and sparsely branched
• Leaves alternate, simple, entire, shortly petioled or subsessile, lanceolate to oblanceolate; stipules 0
• Flowers bisexual, regular, in dense, bracteate terminal spikes
• Calyx as long as corolla, 5-partite, persistent; lobes broadly elliptic, imbricate
• Corolla 5-lobed; tube short, broader than long; lobes ovate-oblong, about as long as tube, imbricate
• Stamens 5, arising in middle of corolla tube, alternating with petals, included; filaments much shorter than anthers; anthers 2-thecous, almost quadrate in outline, opening by longitudinal slits
• Ovary half-inferior, 2-locular, with many ovules in each locule from axile placentas; stigma shortly bifid
• Fruit a depressed, subglobose capsule, dehiscing transversely, operculum falling with calyx lobes
• Seeds ellipsoid, sculptured

Classification Notes:

• Usually placed under Campanulaceae in the past

Nomenclature:

• Sphenocleaceae
  • Thulin: 114 (1983)
  • Welman: 31 (2000)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genus 1, fairly cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical areas
• Southern Africa: Genus 1, species 1

References:

• THULIN, M. 1983. Sphenocleaceae. Flora zambesiaca 7,1
• WELMAN, W.G. 2000. FSA contributions 16: Sphenocleaceae. Bothalia 30

Resources:

• Sphenocleaceae genus: Sphenoclea