Cabanisia caracasana

Description

Family Pontederiaceae

Herbs annual or perennial , aquatic , floating or rooting in substrate. Roots fibrous . Vegetative stems short or creeping , thick. Leaves rosulate or distributed along stem, distichous; petiole mostly distinct , sometimes inflated ; leaf sheath usually present; leaf blade emersed or submersed , broadly ovate , lanceolate, or broadly linear , sometimes completely reduced, stomata paracytic . Flowering stems erect , solid, terminating in a leaf, spathe , and inflorescence. Inflorescences paniculate , racemose, spicate , umbellate , or 1-flowered, subtended by a spathelike or tubular leaf sheath; bracts minute or absent. Flowers bisexual , mostly actinomorphic , sometimes zygomorphic. Perianth segments 6, in 2 whorls, petaloid , free or basally connate into a tube . Stamens usually 6 in 2 whorls, rarely 3 or 1, inserted on perianth, often unequal or dissimilar; filaments slender, free; anthers 2-loculed, introrse , dehiscing by longitudinal slits or rarely by pores ; pollen grains 2- or 3-nucleate, colpi 1 or 2(or 3), distal or subequatorial. Ovary superior, 3-loculed and placentation axile or 1-loculed and placentation parietal; ovules numerous per locule or 1 and pendulous, anatropous . Style 1; stigma capitate or minutely 3-lobed. Fruit a 3-valved capsule or indehiscent. Seeds small, longitudinally ribbed or smooth ; endosperm copious , mealy ; embryo central in seed, straight, terete .

Six genera and ca. 40 species: widespread in tropical and subtropical regions; two genera (one introduced ) and five species (one introduced) in China.Guofang Wu & Charles N. Horn "Pontederiaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 40. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Biology

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Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: radiatopses () - kenrick & crane, 1997
        Class: Liliopsida () - Scopoli, 1760
        Subclass: Commelinidae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Pontederianae () - Takhtajan ex Reveal, 1992
        Order: Pontederiales () - j.d. hooker, in le maout & decaisne, 1876
        Family: Pontederiaceae () - Kunth, 1815[1816] - Water-Hyacinth Family
        Genus: Cabanisia ()
        Specific epithet: caracasana - Schlecht.
        Botanical name: - Cabanisia caracasana Schlecht.