Alismataceae

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Alismataceae
Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous–Recent [1]
Sagittaria latifolia (flowers).jpg
Sagittaria latifolia
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Alismataceae
Vent. [2]
Type genus
Alisma
L.
Genera

See text

Map-Alismataceae.PNG
Alismataceae distribution map

The water-plantains (Alismataceae) are a family of flowering plants, comprising 20 genera (17 extant and 3 fossil) and 119 species. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the greatest number of species in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Most of the species are herbaceous aquatic plants growing in marshes and ponds.

Contents

Description

Most Alismataceae are robust perennials, but some may be annual or perennial, depending on water conditions — they are normally perennial in permanent waters, annual in more seasonal conditions but there are exceptions. The stems are corm-like or stoloniferous. Juvenile and submerse leaves are often linear, whilst more mature and emerse leaves can be linear to ovate or even sagittate. Most have a distinct petiole, with a sheathed base.

The inflorescence is usually compound with whorls of branches, though some are umbel-like, and others have solitary flowers. The flowers are regular, bisexual or unisexual. There are three sepals which usually persist in the fruit. Three petals, usually conspicuous, white, pink, purple, occasionally with yellow or purple spots. The petals rarely last more than one day. In Burnatia and Wiesneria the petals are minute and even occasionally absent in female flowers. Stamens are 3, 6, 9 or numerous. The ovary is superior, comprising 3 - numerous free carpels in one whorl or in a clustered head. Each carpel contains 1 (-2) anatropous ovules.[ clarification needed ]

Fruit is a head of nutlets (except in Damasonium ). The seeds have no endosperm and a curved or folded embryo.

Classification

Under the APG III system, the Alismataceae includes three genera formerly members of the Limnocharitaceae. Altogether, there are 17 extant genera and two fossil genera assigned to the Alismataceae: [3] [4] [5]

Alismataceae

Cultivation and uses

Echinodorus isthmicus Echinodorus isthmicus2.jpg
Echinodorus isthmicus

Several species, notably in the genus Sagittaria , have edible rhizomes, grown for both human food and animal fodder in southern and eastern Asia. They were eaten as food by the indigenous peoples of North America. Most have value as food for wildlife. Some are grown as ornamental plants in bog gardens, ponds and aquariums. The leaves and flower buds of Limnocharis flava are eaten in Southeast Asia as "poor people's vegetable". [7]

Related Research Articles

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The Alismatales (alismatids) are an order of flowering plants including about 4,500 species. Plants assigned to this order are mostly tropical or aquatic. Some grow in fresh water, some in marine habitats. Perhaps the most important food crop in the order is the taro plant, Colocasia esculenta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaeagnaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraniaceae</span> Family of plants

Geraniaceae is a family of flowering plants placed in the order Geraniales. The family name is derived from the genus Geranium. The family includes both the genus Geranium and the garden plants called geraniums, which modern botany classifies as genus Pelargonium, along with other related genera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buxales</span> Order of eudicot flowering plants

The Buxales are a small order of eudicot flowering plants, recognized by the APG IV system of 2016. The order includes the family Buxaceae; the families Didymelaceae and Haptanthaceae may also be recognized or may be included in the Buxaceae. Many members of the order are evergreen shrubs or trees, although some are herbaceous perennials. They have separate "male" (staminate) and "female" (carpellate) flowers, mostly on the same plant. Some species are of economic importance either for the wood they produce or as ornamental plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lythraceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Lythraceae is a family of flowering plants, including 32 genera, with about 620 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. The larger genera include Cuphea, Lagerstroemia (56), Nesaea (50), Rotala (45), and Lythrum (35). It also includes the members of the former families of the pomegranate and of the water caltrop. Lythraceae has a worldwide distribution, with most species in the tropics, but ranging into temperate climate regions as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canellaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrocharitaceae</span> Family of aquatic plants

Hydrocharitaceae is a flowering plant family including 16 known genera with a total of ca 135 known species, that including a number of species of aquatic plant, for instance the tape-grasses, the well known Canadian waterweed, and frogbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campanulaceae</span> Family of flowering plants comprising bellflowers

The family Campanulaceae, of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belonging to the genera Campanula (bellflower), Lobelia, and Platycodon (balloonflower). Campanula rapunculus and Codonopsis lanceolata are eaten as vegetables. Lobelia inflata, L. siphilitica and L. tupa and others have been used as medicinal plants. Campanula rapunculoides may be a troublesome weed, particularly in gardens, while Legousia spp. may occur in arable fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potamogetonaceae</span> Family of aquatic plants

The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The roughly 110 known species are divided over six genera. The largest genus in the family by far is Potamogeton, which contains about 100 species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaeocarpaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Elaeocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera. The largest genera are Elaeocarpus, with about 350 species, and Sloanea, with about 120.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commelinaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with about 731 known species in 41 genera. Well known genera include Commelina (dayflowers) and Tradescantia (spiderworts). The family is diverse in both the Old World tropics and the New World tropics, with some genera present in both. The variation in morphology, especially that of the flower and inflorescence, is considered to be exceptionally high amongst the angiosperms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parnassiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Parnassiaceae Gray were a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Celastrales. The family is not recognized in the APG III system of plant classification. When that system was published in 2009, Parnassiaceae were treated as subfamily Parnassioideae of an expanded family Celastraceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Sabiaceae is a family of flowering plants that were placed in the order Proteales according to the APG IV system. It comprises three genera, Meliosma, Ophiocaryon and Sabia, with 66 known species, native to tropical to warm temperate regions of southern Asia and the Americas. The family has also been called Meliosmaceae Endl., 1841, nom. rej.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trochodendraceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Trochodendraceae is the only family of flowering plants in the order Trochodendrales. It comprises two extant genera, each with a single species along with up to five additional extinct genera and a number of extinct species. The living species are native to south east Asia. The two living species both have secondary xylem without vessel elements, which is quite rare in angiosperms. As the vessel-free wood suggests primitiveness, these two species have attracted much taxonomic attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloranthaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Chloranthaceae is a family of flowering plants (angiosperms), the only family in the order Chloranthales. It is not closely related to any other family of flowering plants, and is among the early-diverging lineages in the angiosperms. They are woody or weakly woody plants occurring in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Madagascar, Central and South America, and the West Indies. The family consists of four extant genera, totalling about 77 known species according to Christenhusz and Byng in 2016. Some species are used in traditional medicine. The type genus is Chloranthus. The fossil record of the family, mostly represented by pollen such as Clavatipollenites, extends back to the dawn of the history of flowering plants in the Early Cretaceous, and has been found on all continents.

<i>Didymeles</i> Genus of trees

Didymeles is a genus of flowering plants. It is variously treated as the only genus of the family Didymelaceae — or in the family Buxaceae, as in the APG IV system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandanaceae</span> Family of flowering plants native to the tropics and subtropics of the Old World

Pandanaceae is a family of flowering plants native to the tropics and subtropics of the Old World, from West Africa to the Pacific. It contains 982 known species in five genera, of which the type genus, Pandanus, is the most important, with species like Pandanus amaryllifolius and karuka being important sources of food. The family likely originated during the Late Cretaceous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triuridaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Triuridaceae are a family of tropical and subtropical flowering plants, including nine genera with a total of approximately 55 known species. All members lack chlorophyll and are mycoheterotrophic. The heterotrophic lifestyle of these plants has resulted in a loss of xylem vessels and stomata, and a reduction of leaves to scales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limnocharitaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Limnocharitaceae was a family of flowering plants in the monocot order Alismatales. In the APG IV system, it is included in the family Alismataceae. It is commonly known as the water poppy family. Species that have been placed in this taxon are small, perennial, aquatic herbs, native to the tropics, but adventive or naturalized in the subtropics as a result of cultivation.

<i>Blandfordia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Blandfordia, commonly known as Christmas bells, is a genus of four species of flowering plants native to eastern Australia. Christmas bells are tufted, perennial herbs with narrow, linear leaves and up to twenty large, drooping, cylindrical or bell-shaped flowers.

References

  1. "Paleobiology Database: Family Alismataceae Ventenat 1799".
  2. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009), "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III", Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 161 (2): 105–121, doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x , hdl: 10654/18083
  3. Alismataceae Archived 2009-02-01 at the Wayback Machine in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants. Archived 2007-01-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Haggard, Kristina K.; Tiffney, Bruce H. (1997). "The Flora of the Early Miocene Brandon Lignite, Vermont, USA. VIII. Caldesia (Alismataceae)". American Journal of Botany. 84 (2). Botanical Society of America: 239–252. doi:10.2307/2446086. JSTOR   2446086. PMID   21712204.
  5. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  6. Hernández-Sandoval, Luis; Cevallos-Ferriz, Sergio R. S.; Hernández-Damián, Ana L. (2023). "Nichima gen. nov. (Alismataceae) based on Reproductive Structures from the Oligocene-Miocene of Mexico". American Journal of Botany . 110 (10): e16231. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.16231 . PMID   37661813.
  7. Sky Meadows Nature Guide; accessed 2017-07-05

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