Plumbaginaceae
M.H. BOKHARI
Biology Dept., Pahlavi University, Shiraz, Iran.
Perennial or rarely annual herbs, sub-shrubs or shrubs. Leaves simple, spirally arranged, often confined to the basal rosettes, entire or rarely pinnatifid to pinnatisect, somewhat sheathing at the bases. Flowers hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, hypogynous, 5-merous, arranged in spicate, paniculate or sub-capitate inflorescence. Calyx gamosepalous, funnel-shaped, obconical or tubular; limb scarious, persistent, forming a dispersal unit with the fruit. Corolla polypetalous to gamopetalous. Stamens 5 with more or less dilated filaments, adnate at base to the petals or very rarely connate at base. Ovary superior, 1-locular with one basal circinotropous ovule; styles 5, free from the base or united throughout their whole length; stigmas variously capitate or filiform-cylindrical. Fruit single-seeded, dispersing with the calyx; pericarp dry, membranous, free from the seed. Seeds with mealy endosperm and straight embryo.
Genera 16 (Linczevski, I. Tentamentum Systematis Ordinis Plumbagina¬lum Lindl. Novit. Syst. Pl. Vase. Acad. Sci. U.R.S.S. 171-177:1968); distributed throughout the world, mostly in maritime or saline places. Only 4 genera are reported from W. Pakistan.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under P.L. 480. Thanks are also due to Mr. B.L. Burtt, Mr. I.C. Hedge and Miss J. Lamond of Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, for critically going through this manuscript and making useful suggestions.
