Abstract
Aquatic, freshwater, rhizomatous perennial. Rhizome dorsiventral, creeping, apparently monopodial, axillary buds sometimes developing into short-stalked bulbils. Leaves distichous or subdistichous, borne on the apex of the rhizome, erect, linear, glabrous not differentiated into petiole and blade, and up to 1 m or more long, triquetrous, submerged or usually emergent, the base somewhat extended and sheathing below; intravaginal scales numerous. Scapes developed on alternate sides of the rhizome, usually separated by an odd number (5, 7, 9) of foliage leaves, erect, terete, glabrous. Inflorescence an umbel-like complex of cymes subtended by (2-)3(-4) bracts. Flowers pedicellate, perfect, protandrous, almost hypogynous, actinomorphic. Perianth of 6 petaloid tepals in 2 whorls, free, white to pink. Stamens 9, the outer whorl with 6 and the inner with 3; filaments flattened; anthers basifixed, 2-thecate, latrorsely and longitudinally dehiscent. Gynoecium of 6 conduplicate carpels arranged in 2 alternate whorls of 3, the carpels connate at the base into a ring, otherwise distinct, each apically narrowed into a crested ventral somewhat decurrent stigma; basally nectariferous on lateral carpel walls; placentation laminar. Ovules numerous, anatropous. Fruit of separate follicles, dehiscing by widening of the ventral sutures. Seeds numerous with ribbed testa and a straight embryo; endosperm lacking.
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Cook, C.D.K. (1998). Butomaceae. In: Kubitzki, K. (eds) Flowering Plants · Monocotyledons. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03531-3_9
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