Ruppiaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Ruppiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls perfect, very small and inconspicuous, borne in very short, mostly 2-fld, terminal spikes, each spike initially concealed in the sheath of the uppermost vegetative lf; peduncle eventually much elongate and commonly becoming spirally twisted; tep wanting; stamens 2, opposite; anthers subsessile, extrorse, the pollen-sacs well separated on the expanded connective, which has a tiny abaxial appendage near the tip; pollen isobilateral; pistils (2–)4(–8), each with an expanded, ventro-apical stigma, becoming elevated on a slender stipe in fr, so that the several pistils of a fl form an umbelliform cluster; ovule solitary, pendulous, ventral-apical; fr an ovoid, commonly asymmetrical drupelet; endosperm wanting; embryo with an obliquely terminal cotyledon and a lateral plumule; glabrous, submersed aquatic herbs, rooted in the substrate; shoot-tip very compact and congested, but branched just beneath the terminal infl, the stem elongating and again terminating in an infl, etc.; typically 4 lvs between successive infls; lvs alternate or opposite, linear or setaceous, with a single midvein, expanded below into a well developed, distally open sheath. A single genus and sp.
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Common Names
The ditch-grass family