Abstract
Erect annual glabrous herbs, up to 1.5 m tall. Roots fibrous. Stems fistulose, fleshy or spongy, freely branching. Leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate, petiolate; lamina pinnately veined, margin entire. Inflorescence a dense terminal pedunculate acropetal conico-cylindric spike. Flowers small, tetracyclic, perfect, radially symmetrical, subtended by an inconspicuous spathulate bract and a pair of linear bracteoles. Calyx synsepalous, adnate to the ovary, forming a hypanthium; lobes 5, imbricate, persistent. Corolla sympetalous, radially symmetric, white or pale yellow, urceolate-campanulate, caducous; lobes 5, imbricate. Stamens 5, alternating with the corolla lobes; filaments distinct, adnate to the middle of the corolla tube, slightly dilated at base; anthers tetrasporangiate, dithecal, basifixed, distinct. Nectary 0. Gynoecium syncarpous, 2-locular; ovary half-inferior; ovules numerous; placentae axile, spongy; style simple, short or almost wanting; stigma capitate. Fruit a circumscissile capsule, enclosed by the accrescent calyx lobes. Seeds small, oblong, yellowish brown, shining, numerous, exarillate, testa striate; embryo straight; endosperm very scanty or lacking.
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Lammers, T.G. (2016). Sphenocleaceae. In: Kadereit, J., Bittrich, V. (eds) Flowering Plants. Eudicots. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28534-4_30
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