尖瓣花科 jian ban hua ke
Hong Deyuan (洪德元)[1]; Thomas G. Lammers[2]
Annual herbs, without laticifers. Leaves alternate, simple. Flowers perfect, regular, in axils of small bracts, forming a dense, terminal spike, with 2 bracteoles; pedicels absent. Calyx epigynous, 5-lobed. Corolla epigynous, tubular, 5-lobed to middle. Stamens 5, inserted at lower part of corolla-tube, alternate with corolla-lobes; filaments extremely short; anthers 2-celled. Ovary inferior, 2-locular; ovules numerous, on axile placentas, anatropous; stigma obscurely 2-lobed, lobes nearly capitate. 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 put 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.
尖瓣花属 jian ban hua shu
Gaertnera Retzius (1791), not Schreber (1789), nor Lamarck (1792), nom. cons., nor Gaertneria Medikus (1789); Pongati Adanson; Pongatium Jussieu; Rapinia Loureiro.
Morphological characters and geographical distribution are the same as those of the family.
尖瓣花 jian ban hua
Gaertnera pongati Retzius; Pongatium indicum Lamarck; Rapinia herbacea Loureiro; Sphenoclea pongatia Candolle.
Plants glabrous throughout. Stems erect, 20–70 cm tall, up to 1 cm in diam., usually branched. Leaves petioled; petioles up to 1 cm; leaf blades long-elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2–9 × 0.5–2 cm, adaxially green, abaxially gray or green, margin entire. Spikes opposite to leaves or terminal, 1–4 cm; bracts ovate, apex acuminate; bracteoles broad-linear; flowers less than 2 mm. Calyx-lobes ovate-orbicular. Corolla white, 1.5 mm, shallowly lobed; lobes patent. Capsule 2–4 mm in diam. Seeds brown-yellow, ca. 0.5 mm. Fl. & fr. all the year round.
Paddy fields, wet places. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, S Yunnan (Xishuangbanna) [Old World tropics; introduced in New World tropics].