Home
Aquatic perennial herb; thalloid part ribbon-like,1–4 mm wide.. Long stems to 30 cm long, freely branched, producing leafy branchlets and short flowering shoots.. Leaves 3-ranked, sessile, elliptic to slightly obovate, 0.4–3.2 mm long, 0.5–0.6 mm wide, apex obtuse to rounded, main nerve ± visible.. Flowers terminal and/or axillary, each subtended by 2 free leafy bracts; bracts longer and thinner than leaves; pedicel erect, 1–15 mm long, to 20 mm long in fruit.. Tepals 3, scarious, connate for about half their length, free lobes 1–2 mm long, 0.4–0.7 mm wide.. Stamen 1(–2), filament 1.5–3 mm long, anther oblong, 0.5–1 mm long.. Ovary sessile, ovoid to ellipsoid, 0.5–1 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm in diameter, with 3 filiform stigmas 0.2–0.7 mm long at apex.. Fruit a 9-ribbed capsule 1.5–2.2 mm long, to 1.2 mm in diameter, dehiscing into 3 equal caducous valves; seeds many, small, orange-brown; testa with anastomosing ribs.. Fig. 1 (page 3).
Perennial, moss-like hydrophyte, 8-170 mm high; thalloid body narrowly ribbon-like, branched, bearing abbreviated flowering shoots and long leafy stem. Leaves becoming closely imbricate, tristichous, entire or divided, sessile, apex obtuse to rounded; main vein ± visible. Bracts ovate to narrowly lanceolate, leafy, longer and thinner in texture than leaves. Flowers solitary or in groups, each subtended by 2 bracts. Tepals 3, scarious, joined for ± 1/2 their length. Stamen 1 or rarely 2; filament slender; anther introrse, oblong. Ovary sessile, ovoid to ellipsoid; styles 3, filiform. Flowering time June-Oct. Fruit a 9-ribbed capsule, dehiscing into 3 equal valves.
Small moss-like plants with the leafy branches elongating in relation to the depth of submergence. Leaves c. 1-3 mm long. Flowers with bracts c. 3 mm long; pedicels up to 1 cm long; perianth 2 mm long, often persistent, the enclosed capsule about the same length, valves 3-ribbed, two of these persistent. Seed orange brown, oblong, rounded.
The abbreviated flowering shoots comprising 2 or more short leafy sterile branches which protect a greatly reduced stem with 2 scarious bracts enclosing an apical flower before anthesis; the long stems up to c. 30 cm long, freely branched, producing leafy branchlets and short flowering shoots.
Leaves ± spaced along the stems becoming closely imbricate on the branches and flowering shoots, arranged in 3 ranks (tristichous), sessile, 0.4–0.6 ? 0.5 mm, ovate to ± triangular, obtuse to rounded at the apex, entire or divided, main nerve ± visible.
Flowers solitary or in groups, terminal and/or axillary, each subtended by 2 free leafy bracts; bracts longer and thinner in texture than the leaves.
Thalloid part 1–4 mm wide, narrowly ribbon-like, branched, bearing abbreviated flowering shoots and long leafy stems.
Stamen 1 (rarely 2), with a slender filament 2–3 mm long; anther introrse, 0.6–0.7 mm long, oblong.
Seeds orange-brown, small, numerous; testa ornamented by thick closely-spaced anastomosing ribs.
Tepals 3, scarious, joined for about half their length; free portion 1–2 ? 0.5–0.7 mm.
Ovary sessile, 0.7–1 ? 0.6 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, with 3 filiform styles at the apex.
Capsule 9-ribbed, dehiscing into 3 equal caducous valves.
Pedicel erect, 2–10 mm long.
