Balanophoraceae
YASIN J. NASIR
National Herbarium, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad.
Fleshy root parasites on woody plants. Leaves absent or reduced to scales. Inflorescence subtended by many imbricate scales. Flowers very small, unisexual, congested on monoecious or dioecious pedunculate heads. Perianth of 3-4 lobes, free or united. Male flowers with stamens the same number as the perianth lobes, more or less opposite them; filaments free or connate; anther dehiscence porose or longitudinal. Female flowers usually naked. Carpels 1-2, rarely more. Ovary superior or inferior, 1-2 (-3) locular with a single pendulous ovule, naked or with a single integument. Style 1 or 2, slender. Fruit a nut or a drupe. Seed endospermic.
A family of tropical and subtropical plants consisting of 18 genera and 120 species distributed in tropical and subtropical areas of the old world. Represented in Pakistan by 1 genus only.
Species not seen
Balanophora sp. ?: Burkill, Work. List of the Flow. Pl. of Baluch. 91.1909 Helmand river, Baluchistan, Aitch. s.n.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for financing this research under PL-480. Thanks are also due to Mr. I.C. Hedge of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh for going through the manuscript.
