Najadaceae
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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
Najadaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls very small and inconspicuous, hydrophilous, solitary (–few) in the axils, unisexual, without a proper perianth; staminate fl subtended by an outer invol of scales (these often ± connate into a cup or tube) and by a very thin and membranous, flask-shaped inner invol with a narrow, ± bilobed mouth; anther solitary, virtually sessile (but the stalk beneath the inner invol lengthening in anthesis); pollen spheroidal, without an exine; pistillate fl without an invol, or with an inconspicuous, membranous invol ± adherent to the ovary; pistil solitary, the unilocular ovary surmounted by 2–4 elongate stigmas; ovule solitary, basal, erect; fr indehiscent, with a very thin pericarp closely surrounding the seed; endosperm wanting; embryo straight, with an obliquely terminal cotyledon and lateral plumule; slender, usually freely branched, glabrous, submersed aquatic herbs, rooted in the substrate but not rhizomatous, most spp. annual; lvs opposite or apparently whorled, linear or subulate, minutely serrulate or evidently serrate, 1-nerved, somewhat expanded and sheathing at the base, not ligulate. Only the genus Najas.
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Common Names
The water-nymph family