9. Sphenocleaceae
尖瓣花科 jian ban hua ke
Authors: Deyuan Hong & Nicholas J. Turland
Herbs annual, without latex. Leaves alternate, simple. Inflorescence a dense terminal or leaf-opposed spike, bracteate and bracteolate. Flowers sessile, bisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx epigynous, 5-lobed. Corolla epigynous, tubular, 5-lobed to middle. Stamens 5, inserted at proximal part of corolla tube, alternate with corolla lobes; filament extremely short; anther 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-loculed; ovules numerous, anatropous; placentation axile; stigma obscurely 2-lobed, lobes subcapitate. Fruit a capsule, oblate, circumscissile. Seeds numerous, oblong.
One species: widely distributed in Old World tropics, including China; introduced in New World tropics.
Sphenocleaceae are only superficially similar to Campanulaceae s.l., and molecular data place them securely in the Solanales. They lack latex; the style is short and without hairs; there is no secondary pollen presentation; and fruit dehiscence is circumscissile, immediately inside the calyx.
Hong De-yuan. 1983. Campanulaceae (Sphenocleoideae). In: Hong De-yuan, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 73(2): 176-177.
