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Information Herbs, perennial or annual. Roots thin or tuberous. Leaves 2-ranked or spirally arranged, not glaucous; blade sessile or petiolate. Inflorescences terminal, leaf-opposed; cymes 1--2, enclosed in spathes, proximal cyme several-flowered, distal cyme vestigial or with 1--several staminate flowers; spathes often filled with mucilaginous liquid, margins distinct or basally connate; bracteoles usually absent. Flowers bisexual and staminate, bilaterally symmetric; pedicels well developed; sepals distinct or proximal 2 connate, unequal; petals distinct, proximal petal often different color than distal 2, smaller or subequal, distal 2 blue (occasionally lilac, lavender, yellow, peach, apricot, or white), clawed; stamens (5--)6, proximal 3 fertile, medial different in form, size from others, distal (2--)3 staminodial; filaments glabrous; antherodes commonly 4--6-lobed; ovary 2--3-locular, ovules 1--2 per locule, 1-seriate. Capsules 2--3-valved, 2--3-locular. Seeds 1--2 per locule; hilum linear; embryotega lateral. x = 11--15.

Information Spreading annual herb or chamaephyte with long, trailing stems rooting at nodes and forming short erect branches and often sub­terranean stolons bearing reduced cleisto­gamous flowers. Leaves folded, linear to ob­long, 20-70 mm long, margins wavy, pale greyish green, glabrous or puberulous. Spathes 1-2, terminal and leaf-opposed, shortly pedunculate, obliquely funnel-shaped with a short, acute apex, c. 10 mm long. Both cymes developed. Petals blue. Lateral stamens with filaments more or less winged. Capsule sub-obovoid; dorsal locule indehiscent, striate-muricate, 1-seeded; 2 ventral locules 2-ovulate but usually forming only 1 seed; testa smooth.

Information Tufted perennial herb, sometimes shortly rhizomatous, to c. 25 cm tall; roots fibrous; shoots probably annual, unbranched to densely branched, 5–30 cm long, ascending to declinate, not rooting, internodes to 8 cm long, puberulous to glabrescent. Leaves spiral or distichous, sheaths to 1.3 cm long, sometimes flushed with purple, puberulous, ciliate at the apex, blade sessile, linear-lanceolate, 3–10.5 x 0.3–0.6 cm, flat to completely involute, apex acuminate, base cuneate, upper surface usually glabrous (rarely with a few, long, patent hairs), lower puberulous, margins sometimes ciliate at the base, otherwise papillose. Spathes with 0.4–0.8 cm long puberulous peduncles, solitary, 0.9–1.5 cm x 0.3–0.7 cm, surfaces pilose-puberulous to puberulous, apex acuminate, margins fused basally, sometimes purple, glabrous, upper cincinnus lacking, lower 2–3-flowered. Flowers bisexual and male; paired sepals shortly to longly fused, paired petals c. 8 mm long, yellow, lower petal oblanceolate; staminodes 3, antherodes well­-developed; lateral stamens with filaments apparently winged, medial stamen with anther saddle-shaped, sometimes with sterile basal lobes, connective apparently yellow with small dark spots. Capsules with only the seed of the dorsal cell developing, the ventral seeds/ovules aborting. Seed enclosed in the indehiscent dorsal cell and shed with the dorsal capsule valve, dorsal capsule valve c. 4–5 x 2 mm, keeled on the back and with 2–3 regular or irregular longitudinal ridges of spines on each side or with dense, scattered, wart-like projections, or smooth and lacking ridges and warts.

Information Perennials (chamaephytes), erect or spreading and rooting at nodes; roots hard, when young covered with a velamen of root-hairs. Leaves narrowly ovate-attenuate, 60-120 mm long, pseudo-petiolate at junc­tion of lamina with apex of auriculate, ciliate sheath, margins minutely white-pustulate, glabrous or puberulous. Spathe pedunculate and solitary or clustered apically, fused, broadly ovate-acute, 15-30 mm long, glabrous to puberulous. Lower cyme absent. Flowers with petals blue. Capsule with 3 one-seeded locules; dorsal locule indehiscent, tuberculate, seed fused to wall; ventral locules dehiscent, smooth; seeds globose smooth, farinose. Fig. 6: 4.

Information Perennial (or annual?), sometimes with a definite base and tuberous roots or, more commonly, without a base, and with fibrous roots only; shoots ascending to decumbent and rooting at the nodes, often forming cleistogamous flowers on short, subterranean shoots from the rooted nodes. Leaves distichous, sheaths c. 0.5–1.3 cm long, puberulous, sometimes with a line of longer hairs along the fused edge, ciliate at the apex, blade elliptic to linear-lanceolate, flat to conduplicate, 1.5–6(–7) x 0.4–1.2(–2) cm, apex acute to rounded, often mucronulate and recurved, base oblique, cuneate, surfaces puberulous or pilose-puberulous or the upper sometimes subglabrous, margins strongly undulate. Spathes solitary on 0.4–1.3 cm long peduncles with a line of pubescence, not falcate, 0.8–1.5 x 0.45–0.8 cm, hirsute-puberulous, margins fused basally, glabrous, often violet; upper cincinnus usually well­developed, exserted, 1-flowered, lower 2–3-flowered. Flowers bisexual and male, c. 1.5 cm wide; paired sepals shortly fused basally or ± free; petals dark blue, the lower one very reduced and lanceolate or subulate; lateral stamens with lyrate, winged filaments, anthers blue, medial stamen with larger saddle-shaped, blue or blue-violet connective with yellow, sterile basal lobes. Capsules obovoid, 6–6.5 x 4–4.5 mm when seeds of ventral cells developed, 3.5–4 x 2–2.5 mm when only dorsal cell developed, dorsal cell indehiscent, keeled on the back and with low, longitudinal, crenate ridges or rows of tubercles, 1-seeded, ventral cells usually abortive, occasionally the apical seed developed. Seeds of ventral cells, when present, transversely elliptic to broadly ovate, c. 2.5–3 x 2 mm, testa brown, smooth, farinose.

Information Herbs, annual or perennial, mat-forming. Roots thin. Stems erect to ascending, to 30 cm. Leaves: leaf sheaths not auriculate, with colorless hairs at summit; blade oblong or lanceolate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, 1.5--6 ´ 0.4--1.1 cm, margins strongly undulate, completely glabrous or adaxially sparsely pilose. Inflorescences: distal cyme usually exserted, 1-flowered; spathes solitary, pedunculate, strongly inflated, not falcate, 0.7--1.5 ´ 0.5--0.9 cm, margins connate, often violet, apex acute, sparsely hirsute; peduncles 0.4--1.1 cm. Flowers sometimes cleistogamous and subterranean (not yet seen in our area); chasmogamous flowers bisexual and staminate; petals blue, proximal one very reduced, conspicuous (blue, rather than white or colorless); lateral stamens with filaments laterally compressed and ± winged; antherodes entirely yellow, cruciform. Capsules 3-locular, 2-valved. Seeds sometimes 5, brown, usually only 1 abaxial locule seed developing, enclosed in deciduous, muricate, abaxial capsule valve; seeds of adaxial locule, when present, 2.5 mm, smooth. 2n = 30.