Podostemaceae

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Riverweed family
File:Mourera fluviatilis.jpg
Mourera fluviatilis
Scientific classification
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Podostemaceae

Genera

About 50; see text

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Podostemaceae (riverweed family) is a family in the order Malpighiales. It comprises about 50 genera and 250 species of more or less thalloid aquatic herbs.

File:Podostemaceae.jpg
Flowering riverweed in the Dordogne river

Riverweeds adhere to hard surfaces (generally rock) in rapids and waterfalls of rivers. They are found mostly in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide.[2] Many species are found in a very small geographic area (perhaps even just a single river or waterfall).[3] Riverweeds are submerged when water levels are high, but during the dry season they live a terrestrial existence, flowering at this time. Their root anatomy is specialized for the purpose of clinging to rocks, and in fact details of the root structure are one of the ways of classifying riverweeds.[4]

The Podostemaceae are related to the families Clusiaceae, Hypericaceae (the St. John's wort family, which is sometimes treated as a subfamily of Clusiaceae), and Bonnetiaceae.[5][6]

Genera

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Moved to other genera

  • Hydrostachys from Madagascar. This genus seems to have relatively little in common with any other, and no affinity to the Podostemaceae except being aquatic; moved to its own family in the Cornales.

See also

Eugenius Warming, a botanist who studied the family

References

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External links

Masahiro Kato, The vague form created by the environment: Podostemaceae, Biohistory Journal, Spring, 2004.


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