Commelinaceae

Abstract

Herbs, mostly perennial, often with a rhizomatous base or R tubers, more rarely annual, often grass-like when not in flower; stems usually succulent or sub succulent, often swollen at the nodes; Int usually marked with a line of Ha; L simple, entire, often longitudinally striped with whitish, silvery or purplish bands, arranged spirally or distichous, or sometimes in mainly terminal or basal Ros; L-base forming a closed (i.e. tubular) sheath around the stem (as in many grasses, but without a projecting ligule), margins of young L involute or convolute, venation clear or obscure; Fl actinomorphic or zygomorphic, bisexual or rarely polygamous, in terminal or axillary 1- to many-flowered cincinni (helicoid cymes) often aggregated in thyrses or fused in pairs; cincinni usually bracteate and bracteolate; Bra often spathaceous or beak-like; Sep usually 3, free (rarely connate, very rarely 2); Pet 3 (very rarely 2), free, sometimes clawed and/or connate at base, equal or unequal; St typically 6, in 2 whorls of 3, but all or some of one or other whorl sometimes missing, variously differentiated or staminodal; Ov superior, 3- or rarely 2-10cular with several to 2, or rarely 1, biseriate or uniseriate, ovules per locule; Fr capsules, splitting loculicidally, or rarely berrylike and indehiscent; Se with mealy endosperm, position of micropyle and embryo marked by a callosity (operculum or embryotega) on the testa.