Descriptions
According to Flora of Tropical East Africa
[FTEA]Butomaceae, Susan Carter. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1960
- Habit
- Perennial or annual, aquatic, swamp or marsh herbs, glabrous, usually lactiferous
- Rhizomes
- Rhizome short; roots short, fibrous
- Leaves
- Leaves erect or floating, basal; petiole with a sheathing base; leaf-blade entire, iridaceous, or lanceolate to orbicular with cuneate to truncate base and acute to rounded apex
- Inflorescences
- Inflorescence umbellate, rarely with solitary flowers; bracts 2 or 3; bracteoles several; flowers regular, bisexual
- Calyx
- Sepals 3, persistent
- Corolla
- Petals 3, delicate
- Androecium
- Stamens 6–9–?; filaments flattened; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally and laterally
- Gynoecium
- Carpels superior, free or joined at the base, 6–?, in a whorl, unilocular; style terminal; stigma sessile; ovules ?, scattered over the ovary-wall on a reticulate placenta
- Fruits
- Fruiting carpels finally dehiscing along the ventral suture; seeds ?, smooth, wrinkled or ridged, rarely slightly spiny, without endosperm; embryo horseshoe-shaped or straight
- Distribution
- A small family, confined to the tropics or subtropics except for Butomus L. which extends across Europe and Asia. The following genus is the only one which occurs in Africa
According to Flora of West Tropical Africa
[FWTA]Butomaceae, F.N. Hepper. Flora of West Tropical Africa 3:1. 1968
- Habit
- Perennial, aquatic or swamp rhizomatous herbs, usually with milky juice
- Leaves
- Leaves ensiform to orbicular
- Flowers
- Flowers solitary or umbellate
- Perianth
- Perianth 2-seriate, the outer 3 usually sepal-like, imbricate, the inner 3 petal-like and usually thin and deciduous
- Androecium
- Stamens hypogynous, 8-9 or numerous; anthers basifixed, opening laterally
- Gynoecium
- Carpels free; ovules numerous, scattered, on the reticulately branched parietal placentas
- Fruits
- Fruits opening by the adaxial suture
- Seeds
- Seeds numerous, without endosperm
Images
Accepted Genera
Other Data
Butomaceae Mirb. appears in other Kew resources:
Bibliography
First published in Hist. Nat. Pl. 8: 194. 1804 (1804)
Accepted by
- APG IV (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385
Sources
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Flora of West Tropical Africa
Flora of West Tropical Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0