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(Last Modified On 10/28/2012)
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(Last Modified On 10/28/2012)
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Family
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BURMANNIACEAE
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Contributor
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F. P. JONKER
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Description
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Annual or perennial, saprophytic or autotrophic herbs, the autotrophic species green, the saprophytic often colorless; leaves alternate, entire, simple, without stipules, mostly reduced to small scales, the non-saprophytic species often with a radical rosette of green, linear leaves; flowers hermaphrodite, usually actino- morphic, sometimes zygomorphic; stem bearing at the top 1 flower or a simple or bifid cincinnus; inflorescence sometimes pseudo-capitate; perianth corolline, limb consisting of 2 whorls of 3 lobes, one of the whorls usually smaller, seldom lacking, tube cylindrical or trigonous, sometimes 3-winged; anthers 3 or 6, (sub) sessile in the perianth throat or hanging down with short filaments; con- nective broad, often appendiculate; style filiform in Burmannieae, shortly cylin- drical or conical in Thismieae, branching at its apex into 3 short branches each bearing a stigma, or bearing at its apex 3 sessile stigmas; ovary inferior, 1-celled with parietal placentation, or 3-celled with axile placentation; ovules numerous, anatropous, with 2 integuments; in Burmannieae perianth limb with anthers and stigmas sometimes deciduous, lower part of perianth always persistent; in other genera of this tribe whole perianth persistent; in Thismieae perianth circumscissile, only a basal, thickened ring persistent; fruit usually capsular, sometimes fleshy in Thismieae, dehiscing irregularly, or with transverse slits or at the top; seeds numerous, small, with endosperm, sometimes with loose, reticulate testa.
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Note
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About 125 species, widely distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres, also in the southern United States, neighborhood of Chicago, Ill., southern Brazil and Bolivia, Mozambique, southern China, Japan, southern Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
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Key
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a. Anthers 3, sessile or subsessile in the perianth throat, thecae dehiscing with transverse slits; flowers actinomorphic, the perianth persistent or the tube persistent on the capsule; style as long as the perianth tube. b. Ovary 3-celled with axile placentation, often prominently 3-winged, but not in the Panamanian species; perianth as a whole persistent on the capsule -1. BURMANNIA bb. Ovary 1-celled with 3 parietal placentas. c. Perianth limb deciduous; seeds subglobose, ovoid or ellipsoid; capsule dehiscing irregularly at the top or with irregular trans- verse slits; ovary with a gland at the top of both sides of the placenta - 2. GYMNOSIPHON cc. Perianth limb persistent; seeds linear or sublinear, seldom ellipsoid; capsule 3-valved, dehiscing between the placentas; ovary without glands on the placentas - 4. APTERIA aa. Stamens 6, hanging down in the perianth tube, thecae dehiscing longi- tudinally; flowers zygomorphic, the perianth circumscissile, only a small basal ring persistent on the fruit; style very short, conical - 3. THISMIA
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