| Trithuria austinensis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Order: | Nymphaeales |
| Family: | Hydatellaceae |
| Genus: | Trithuria |
| Species: | T. austinensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Trithuria austinensis | |
 | |
| Trithuria austinensis is endemic to Western Australia [1] | |
Trithuria austinensis is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia. [1]
Trithuria austinensis is an annual herb with green to red, 20–40 mm long, linear leaves. [2]
It is a dioecious species [3] [2] and in large populations male and female plants occur at equal rates. [4] The peduncles of the reproductive units ("flowers") are 10–50 mm long. In male plants, the 2-8 reproductive units consist of 2-4 4.2–7.2 mm long, and 1.0–3.0 mm wide bracts, and 3-15 stamens. In female plants, the up to 30 reproductive units are composed of 3-4 bracts, and 17-22 carpels. The bracts of the female reproductive units exhibit two different shapes. [2]
Trithuria austinensis D.D.Sokoloff, Remizowa, T.D.Macfarl. & Rudall was published by Dmitry Dmitrievich Sokoloff, Margarita Vasilyena Remizowa, Terry Desmond Macfarlane & Paula J. Rudall in 2008. [2] [1] The type specimen was collected by N. Gibson and M. Lyons in Austin Bay Nature Reserve, Australia on the 16th of November 1995. [2] [5]
The specific epithet austinensis refers to the type locality. [2]
It has some tolerance towards salty water. [6]
It is not threatened. [7] It is known from several populations. [6]
Asparagales is an order of plants in modern classification systems such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. The order takes its name from the type family Asparagaceae and is placed in the monocots amongst the lilioid monocots. The order has only recently been recognized in classification systems. It was first put forward by Huber in 1977 and later taken up in the Dahlgren system of 1985 and then the APG in 1998, 2003 and 2009. Before this, many of its families were assigned to the old order Liliales, a very large order containing almost all monocots with colorful tepals and lacking starch in their endosperm. DNA sequence analysis indicated that many of the taxa previously included in Liliales should actually be redistributed over three orders, Liliales, Asparagales, and Dioscoreales. The boundaries of the Asparagales and of its families have undergone a series of changes in recent years; future research may lead to further changes and ultimately greater stability. In the APG circumscription, Asparagales is the largest order of monocots with 14 families, 1,122 genera, and about 36,000 species.
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae, commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs, grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of broad-leaved trees, shrubs and vines, and most aquatic plants. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον / angeion and σπέρμα / sperma ('seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta.
Amborella is a monotypic genus of understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and the order Amborellales and contains a single species, Amborella trichopoda. Amborella is of great interest to plant systematists because molecular phylogenetic analyses consistently place it as the sister group to all other flowering plants, meaning it was the earliest group to evolve separately from all other flowering plants.
Pandanales, the pandans or screw-pines, is an order of flowering plants placed in the monocot clade in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and Angiosperm Phylogeny Web systems. Within the monocots Pandanales are grouped in the lilioid monocots where they are in a sister group relationship with the Dioscoreales. Historically the order has consisted of a number of different families in different systems but modern classification of the order is based primarily on molecular phylogenetics despite diverse morphology which previously placed many of the families in other groupings based on apparent similarity. Members of the order have a subtropical distribution and includes trees, shrubs, and vines as well as herbaceous plants. The order consists of 5 families, 36 genera and about 1,610 species.
Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.
Bennettitales is an extinct order of seed plants that first appeared in the Permian period and became extinct in most areas toward the end of the Cretaceous. Bennettitales were amongst the most common seed plants of the Mesozoic, and had morphologies including shrub and cycad-like forms. The foliage of bennettitaleans is superficially nearly indistinguishable from that of cycads, but they are distinguished from cycads by their more complex flower-like reproductive organs, at least some of which were likely pollinated by insects.
The Cabombaceae are a family of aquatic, herbaceous flowering plants. A common name for its species is water shield. The family is recognised as distinct in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV system (2016). The family consists of two genera of aquatic plants, Brasenia and Cabomba, totalling six species.
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.
Dasypogonaceae is a family of flowering plants based on the type genus Dasypogon, one that has traditionally not been commonly recognized by taxonomists; the plants it contains were usually included in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae. If valid, Dasypogonaceae includes four genera with 16 species. The family is endemic to Australia. The best known representative is Kingia australis.
Hydatellaceae are a family of small, aquatic flowering plants. The family consists of tiny, relatively simple plants occurring in Australasia and India. It was formerly considered to be related to the grasses and sedges, but has been reassigned to the order Nymphaeales as a result of DNA and morphological analyses showing that it represents one of the earliest groups to split off in flowering-plant phylogeny, rather than having a close relationship to monocots, which it bears a superficial resemblance to due to convergent evolution. The family includes only the genus Trithuria, which has at least 13 species, although species diversity in the family has probably been substantially underestimated.
Centrolepis is a genus of small herbaceous plants in the family Restionaceae known as thorn grass scales, with about 25 species native to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and south-east Asia as far north as Hainan Dao. APG III system classifies this genus in the Centrolepidaceae family.
A pseudanthium is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers, or capitula, which are special types of inflorescences in which anything from a small cluster to hundreds or sometimes thousands of flowers are grouped together to form a single flower-like structure. Pseudanthia take various forms. The real flowers are generally small and often greatly reduced, but the pseudanthium itself can sometimes be quite large.
Trithuria is a genus of small ephemeral aquatic herb that represent the only members of the family Hydatellaceae found in India, Australia, and New Zealand. All 13 described species of Trithuria are found in Australia, with the exception of T. inconspicua and T. konkanensis, from New Zealand and India respectively. Until DNA sequence data and a reinterpretation of morphology proved otherwise, these plants were believed to be monocots related to the grasses (Poaceae). They are unique in being the only plants besides two members of Triuridaceae in which the stamens are centred and surrounded by the pistils; in Hydatellaceae the resulting 'flowers' may instead represent condensed inflorescences or non-flowers.
Lacandonia is a mycoheterotrophic plant that contains no chlorophyll and has the unusual characteristic of inverted positions of the male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) floral parts, something that had not been seen in any other plants, with the exceptions of Trithuria and on occasion the related Triuris brevistylis.
Haemodorum is a genus of herbs in the family Haemodoraceae, first described as a genus in 1798 by James Edward Smiith. The genus is native to New Guinea and Australia. The type species is Haemodorum corymbosum Vahl, first described by Martin Vahl in 1805.
Maundia is a genus of alismatid monocots, described in 1858. Maundia was formerly included in the family Juncaginaceae but is now considered to form a family of its own under the name Maundiaceae. It contains only one known species, Maundia triglochinoides, endemic to Australia.
Trithuria inconspicua is a small aquatic herb of the family Hydatellaceae that is only found in New Zealand.
Terry Desmond Macfarlane is a botanist and taxonomist, who has worked in both Australia and Peru. A senior research scientist at the Western Australian Herbarium, Macfarlane is associate editor of its journal Nuytsia and currently collaborates with researchers across Australia and in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and United Kingdom. He was also involved in the development of FloraBase, the Western Australian flora database.
Nanjinganthus dendrostyla is a fossil plant known from Early Jurassic sediments in China and proposed by Fu, et al. to represent a pre-Cretaceous angiosperm. The material consists of numerous compression fossils which bear a resemblance to flowers. The segments bear prominent ridges, suggesting veins, and a few specimens have a branched axis perpendicular to the segments, interpreted by Fu, et al. as a branched style. Beneath the putative perianth, Fu, et al. interpret the existence of ovules enclosed in ovaries, however, the preservation of this region of the structure is poor.
A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species. The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.