The World Flora Online

Perennial herbs or subshrubs, evergreen, rhizomatous and/or stems creeping and adventitiously rooted, sometimes taprooted, ecto- and endotrophically mycorrhizal. Stems erect to decumbent or prostrate. Leaves basal and cauline, alternate or opposite, simple; stipules absent; petiole present or absent; blade margins entire or dentate-serrate. Inflorescences terminal racemes or solitary flowers. Flowers bisexual; perianth and androecium hypogynous; sepals 5, connate proximally or distinct; petals 5, connate proximally or distinct; stamens 5, antisepalous or basally connate into ring, epipetalous, alternating with staminodes; anthers transversely or longitudinally dehiscent; staminodes absent or 5, scalelike or spatulate; pistils 1, 3-carpellate; ovary superior, 3-locular; placentation axile; ovules usually anatropous, sometimes axile, hemitropous, campylotropous, or amphitropous, bitegmic, tenuinucellate; styles 1, terminal; stigmas 1, slightly 3-lobed to unlobed and capitate [disciform]. Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds 10-30, brown, cylindric; embryo straight to curved; endosperm copious, fleshy.

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Shrublets or perennial herbs, prostrate or decumbent, evergreen, mostly glabrous. Stipules absent. Leaves simple, spirally arranged or alternate, often crowded, subsessile or petiolate, pinnately veined. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, solitary or in a capitate raceme. Calyx 5-lobed, persistent; lobes free, imbricate. Corolla basally connate, apically lobed, caducous; lobes 5, spreading. Stamens 5[or 10], epipetalous, alternate with corolla lobes if 5; staminodes 5 if present, epipetalous, opposite corolla lobes, scalelike or spatulate; anthers 1- or 2-celled, dehiscing by slits. Ovary superior, 3[or 5]-locular; ovules numerous, axile, anatropous or amphitropous. Style simple; stigma lobed, capitate, or disciform. Fruit a 3[or 5]-locular capsule, loculicidally dehiscing. Seeds many, small, cylindrical; endosperm copious; embryo straight or slightly curved.

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Fls regular, perfect, hypogynous, 5-merous except the 3-locular ovary; cor sympetalous, with imbricate or convolute lobes, or (Galax) the pet virtually distinct; functional stamens 5, attached to the cor-tube alternate with the lobes; 5 staminodes often alternate with the stamens, and then sometimes connivent or connate with them to form a tube; anthers often inflexed, but not becoming inverted, opening by longitudinal or transverse slits, sometimes awned at the base; pollen in monads; placentation axile; fr a loculicidal capsule; seeds several or numerous, small, with copious endosperm around a straight or slightly curved, dicotyledonous embryo; evergreen herbs or subshrubs with alternate or opposite (often all basal), simple, exstipulate lvs and small or medium- sized, white or pink, solitary or racemose fls. 6/18.

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SELECTED REFERENCES Doonan, S. 1993. The Diapensia family. Bull. Amer. Rock Gard. Soc. 51: 97-106. Qin, H. N. and B. M. Bartholomew. 2005. Diapensiaceae. In: Wu Z. and P. H. Raven, eds. 1994+. Flora of China. 11+ vols. Beijing and St. Louis. Vol. 14, pp. 235-237. Rönblom, K. and A. A. Anderberg. 2002. Phylogeny of Diapensiaceae based on molecular data and morphology. Syst. Bot. 27: 383-395. Scott, P. J. 2004. Diapensiaceae. In: K. Kubitzki et al., eds. 1990+. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. 9+ vols. Berlin etc. Vol. 6, pp. 117-121. Scott, P. J. and R. T. Day. 1983. Diapensiaceae: A review of the taxonomy. Taxon 32: 417-423. Wood, C. E. Jr. and R. B. Channell. 1959. The Empetraceae and Diapensiaceae of the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 40: 161-171. Xi, Y. Z. and Tang Y. C. 1990. Pollen morphology and phylogenetic relationships in the Diapensiaceae. Cathaya 2: 89-112.

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