[FTEA]
Cabombaceae, B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1971
- Morphology General Habit
- Aquatic herbs with perennial sympodial rhizomes; stems long and slender, coated with mucilage
- Morphology Leaves
- Leaves alternate, the floating ones peltate, the submerged ones finely divided or absent
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
- Flowers rather small, hermaphrodite, axillary, solitary and regular
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
- Sepals 3, petaloid
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
- Petals 3, hypogynous
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium
- Stamens 3–18, with extrorse anthers dehiscing longitudinally
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium
- Carpels 2–18, completely free, with a simple narrow stigma but very reduced style; ovules 1–3, parietal, pendulous, anatropous
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Fruiting carpels indehiscent, 1–3-seeded
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
- Seeds with fleshy endosperm and perisperm but no aril
[FZ]
Cabombaceae, H. Wild. Flora Zambesiaca 1:1. 1960
- Morphology General Habit
- Aquatic herbs with perennial rhizomes; stems coated with mucilage
- Morphology Leaves
- Leaves alternate, floating leaves peltate, sometimes with finely dissected submerged leaves in addition
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
- Flowers axillary, solitary, actinomorphic
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
- Sepals 3
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
- Petals 3, hypogynous
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium
- Stamens 3–18; anthers extrorse, opening lengthwise
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium
- Carpels 2–18, free; style very short or absent but with an attenuated, entire stigma; ovules 1–3, pendulous, parietal
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Fruiting carpels indehiscent
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
- Seeds 1–3 with a fleshy endosperm
[NTK]
Aona, L.Y.S. (2009). Neotropical Cabombaceae.
- Morphology
-
Description
Perennial aquatic glabrous plants, rarely annual ; rhizome elongated, fixed to the substrate, stems elongated and submersed to distally floating. Leaves simple , petiolate , heterophyllous, floating, peltate , narrowly elliptic to broadly ovate , the submerse ones (only in Cabomba Aubl.) dissected , palmate ; stipules absent. Flowers on long pedicels, opening above the water, solitary, hermaphrodite , symmetry radial, hypogynous, tepals 6, white, pink, purple or yellow, the inner tepals (petals) with nectariferous auricles near the base; stamens 3-36, free , filaments flattened, anthers oblong , basifixed, with two thecae, extrorse with longitudinal dehiscence, carpels (1- )2-4(-18), free , ovules (1-)2-5, placentation laminar. Fruit achene -like, coriaceous , indehiscent ; seeds 1-5 per fruit , embryo small, endosperm reduced, perisperm abundant.
- Distribution
-
Distribution in the Neotropics
Two genera:
- Cabomba (c. 5 species, widely distributed from the USA to Argentina), leaves heterophyllous, inner tepals bearing nectaries.
- Brasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel., a wind pollinated species with reduced flowers, distributed worldwide and cultivated for its edible shoots.
- Diagnostic
-
Other important characters
- Petals (inner tepals) with auricular nectaries.
- Placentation laminar.
- Cabombaceae are rather small-flowered 'waterlilies', with few ovules or seeds in each carpel; they have floating stems and all their flower parts are free (Stevens 2008).
Cabombaceae is closely related to the true 'waterlilies', Nymphaeaceae, sharing with it several characters e.g:
- Stem rhizomatous.
- Leaves involute.
- Leaves peltate.
- Secondary veinspalmate, actinodromous, festoon brochidodromous.
- Actinodromous.
- Festoon brochidodromous.
- Margin toothed or entire.
- Flowers are single along the stem.
However, in Cabombaceae the flowers are trimerous, with 6 tepals (vs. sepals 4-6(-12) and petals 6-70 in Nympheaceae), and leaves may be heterophyllous.
Useful tips for generic identification- Brasenia Schreb. is wind pollinated.
- Cabomba has paired nectaries on its inner tepals and is pollinated by insects (Stevens 2008).
See above
- General Description
-
Number of genera
See above.
Notes on delimitation- Cabombaceae is in the order Nympheales together with Nymphaeaceae and Hydatellaceae.
- Saarela et al. (2007) suggest a few additional possible synapomorphies for Nymphaeales, such as hydrolysable tannins which in this group (e.g. in Nuphar Sm.) are different from those found elsewhere (Gottlieb et al. 1993; Ishimatsu et al. 1989) - although of course Hydatellaceae are a poorly known group.
- Both genera are widely distributed and native. Species of the genus Cabomba are often used as aquarium plants.
- Literature
-
Important literature
FERES, F. & AMARAL, M.C.E. 2003. Cabombaceae. In Wanderley, M. G. L., Shepherd, G. J. & Giulietti, A. M. (Eds.). Flora Fanerogâmica do Estado de São Paulo. Vol. 3. São Carlos, Editora RiMA. pp: 09-11.
GOTTLIEB, O., R., Kaplan, M. A. C., & Kubitzki, K. 1993. A suggested role of galloyl esters in the evolution of dicotyledons. Taxon 42: 539-552.
ISHIMATSU, M., Tanaka, T., Nonaka, G., Nishioka, I., Nishizawa, M., & Yamagishi, T. 1989. Tannins and related compounds. LXXIX. Isolation and characterisation of novel dimeric and trimeric hydrolyzable tannins, nuphrins C, D, E and F, from Nuphar japonicum DC. Chem. Pharmac. Bull. 37: 1735-1743.
ORGAARD, M. 1991. The genus Cabomba (Cabombaceae) - a taxonomic study. Nordic J. Bot. 11(2): 179-203.
SAARELA, J. M., Rai, H. S., Doyle, J. A., Endress, P. K., Mathews, S., Marchant, A. D., Briggs, B., & Graham, S. W. 2007. Hydatellaceae identified as a new branch near the base of the angiosperm phylogenetic tree. Nature 446: 312-315.
STEVENS, P. F. 2008. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 [and more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/.
Cabombaceae Rich. ex A.Rich. appears in other Kew resources:
First published in Dict. Class. Hist. Nat. [Bory] 2: 608. 1822 [31 Dec 1822] (1822)
Accepted by
- APG IV (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385
-
Flora Zambesiaca
Flora Zambesiaca
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
-
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
-
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
-
Neotropikey
Milliken, W., Klitgard, B. and Baracat, A. (2009 onwards), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0