Description: Herbs, often with a woody rootstock.
Leaves palmately 2- or 4-foliolate; stipules peltate.
Inflorescences spicate, terminal or axillary, 1- to several-flowered, bracts paired, peltate. Calyx shortly tubular, upper 2 teeth fused. Stamens fused into a closed tube; anthers alternately long and ± basifixed or short and versatile. Ovary sessile; style filiform.
Fruit a lomentum, compressed, breaking into 3–10, indehiscent, 1-seeded articles.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 86 species, chiefly tropical regions. Australia: c. 19 species (endemic), Qld, N.S.W., N.T, W.A.
Text by T. A. James
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Plants conspicuously pubescent | Zornia muriculata |
| Plants glabrous to sparsely pubescent | 2 |
| 2 | Leaflets mostly 2–7 mm wide; lower and upper leaflets different in shape, the lower usually broader and shorter, the upper more or less lanceolate to linear; lomentum glabrous or sparsely hairy, bristles absent or few | Zornia dyctiocarpa |
| Leaflets mostly 1–2 mm wide; lower and upper leaflets more or less similar in shape; lomentum with numerous bristles, shortly hairy
Back to 1 | Zornia floribunda |
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