Limnocharis
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Authority
Haynes, Robert R. & Holm-Nielsen, Lauritz B. 1992. The Limnocharitaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 56: 32. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Alismataceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type species. Limnocharis emarginata Humboldt & Bonpland, nom. illeg. (= Alisma flam Linnaeus = L. flava (Linnaeus) Buchenau). Name from the Greek Limno, marsh or pond, and Charis, grace.
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Description
Genus Description - Plants emersed. Stems short, rhizomatous; stolons occasional, erect. Leaves basal, emersed, long-petiolate; petiole triangular, aseptate, often with aerenchyma; blade lanceolate to oval, the apex acute to round, the base acute to cordate. Inflorescences of 1-many flowers, terminating an elongate, aseptate scape, occasionally proliferating, the scapes to ten in number; peduncles shorter than to equal the length of petioles; bracts separate, delicate throughout; shorter than pedicel subtended. Flowers long-pedicellate, the pedicels somewhat dilated, often winged, often inflated, erect to spreading in flower, recurved in fruit, trigonous; sepals green, broadly ovate, obtuse, appressed; petals yellow, fugacious, ovate to suborbicular, longer than the sepals, erect to slightly spreading above the sepals; stamens many, the outer ones often sterile, the filaments linear, flattened, the anthers linear; carpels 15-20, laterally compressed, verticillate, scarcely coherent at base, the style absent, the stigma extrorse. Fruits laterally compressed, semicircular, scarcely coherent, membranous, dorsally furrowed, dehiscent internally; seeds numerous, transversely multicostate.
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Distribution
Two species. From Mexico and the Caribbean islands south to Argentina; naturalized in Southeast Asia.
Mexico North America| West Indies| South America| Central America| Asia|