Alismataceae

Ventenat
Common names: Water-plantain or Arrowhead Family
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 22. Treatment on page 7.

Herbs, annual or perennial, rhizomatous, stoloniferous, or cormose, caulescent, glabrous to stellate-pubescent; sap milky. Roots septate or not septate. Leaves basal, submersed, floating, or emersed, sessile or petiolate, sheathing proximally; blade with translucent markings of dots or lines present or absent, basal lobes present or absent; venation reticulate, primary-veins parallel from base of blade to apex, secondary-veins reticulate. Inflorescences scapose racemes or panicles, rarely umbels, erect, rarely floating or decumbent, whorled (forming racemes) or whorls branching (forming panicles), bracteolate. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, if unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different plants, hypogynous, subsessile to long-pedicellate; sepals persistent, 3; petals deciduous, 3, delicate; stamens 0, 6, 9, or to 30, distinct; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally; pistils 0 or 6–1500 or more, distinct or coherent proximally, 1-loculed; placentation basal; ovules1–2. Fruits achenes or follicles. Seeds: embryo U-shaped; endosperm absent in mature seed.

Distribution

Nearly worldwide, primarily tropical and subtropical regions

Discussion

Genera 12, species ca. 80 (4 genera, 34 species in the flora).

Key

1 Pistils weakly coherent proximally into starlike aggregation; petals erose Damasonium
1 Pistils distinct, forming heads or rings; petals entire. > 2
2 Pistils arranged in ring around margin of flattened receptacle. Alisma
2 Pistils spirally arranged on convex receptacle. > 3
3 Flowers all bisexual; fruits mostly plump, longitudinally ribbed, lateral wings absent. Echinodorus
3 Flowers unisexual (at least the proximal); fruits compressed, lateral wing often present, 1, curved. Sagittaria
... more about "Alismataceae"
Robert R. Haynes +  and C. Barre Hellquist +
Ventenat +
Water-plantain or Arrowhead Family +
Nearly worldwide +  and primarily tropical and subtropical regions +
u--shaped +
subsessile +  and long-pedicellate +
hypogynous +
unisexual +  and bisexual +
decumbent +  and floating +
petiolate +  and sessile +
emersed +, floating +  and submersed +
decumbent +  and floating +
deciduous +
coherent +  and distinct +
decumbent +  and floating +
argue1974a +, argue1976a +, beal1960a +, charlton1973a +, correll1972a +, godfrey1979a +, haynes1985c +, haynes1994a +  and rogers1983a +
not septate +  and septate +
persistent +
Alismataceae +
caulescent +, cormose +, stoloniferous +  and rhizomatous +
perennial +  and annual +
glabrous +  and stellate-pubescent +
bracteolate +  and branching +