Family Maundiaceae
Description: Perennial herb with rhizomes, growing usually in seasonally or intermittently inundated sites.
Leaves triangular in cross section, spongy, emergent above standing water, sheathing (sheath closed), eligulate.
Inflorescence a spike. Flowers bisexual, small, sessile. Perianth segments 2 (-4). Stamens (4-) 6.
Fruits of 4–10 carpels, fused adaxially, with a short recurved stylar beak. Carpels mostly separating at fruit dehiscence.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 1 genus, 1 species, endemic to E Australia (New South Wales & Queensland). Rare, conservation status vulnerable.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Maundiaceae, Order: Alismatales)
Wikipedia Selected references: S. von Mering & J.W. Kadereit in O. Seberg et al. (eds), Phylogeny, Systematics, and Recircumscription of Juncaginaceae - A Cosmopolitan Wetland Family. Diversity, Phylogeny, and Evolution in the Monocotyledons: 73 (2010); D.D. Sokoloff et al., Morphology of Maundia supports its isolated phylogenetic position in the early-divergent monocot order Alismatales, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 173(1): 12-45 (2013); A.G. Platonova et al., Vegetative morphology and anatomy of Maundia (Maundiaceae: Alismatales) and patterns of peripheral bundle orientation in angiosperm leaves with three-dimensional venation, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 182(4): 757-790 (2016)
Text by B.G. Briggs & P.G. Kodela, March 2017
Taxon concept: von Mering & Kadereit (2010), Sokoloff et al. (2013)
| One genus in NSW: Maundia |
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