Juncaginaceae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s, recognized by most taxonomists for the past few decades. It is also known as the ''arrowgrass'' family. It includes 3 genera with a total of 34 known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). The

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly Molecular phylogenetics, molecular-based, list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy that ...

, of 2003 (unchanged from the

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved ...

, of 1998), also recognizes such a family and places it in the order

Alismatales The Alismatales (alismatids) are an order of flowering plants including about 4,500 species. Plants assigned to this order are mostly tropical or aquatic. Some grow in fresh water, some in marine habitats. Perhaps the most important food cro ...

, in the clade

monocots Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks a ...

. The species are found in cold or temperate regions in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. However APG IV (2016) removed the genus '' Maundia'' due to its non-exclusive relationship, and elevated it to the monogeneric family Maundiaceae.

Description

Juncaginaceae are marsh or aquatic herbs with linear, sheathing basal leaves. The flowers are small and green in erect spikes or

racemes A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoo ...

. The flower parts come in threes, but the

carpel Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more ...

s are either 3 or 6, joined to a superior ovary. The fruit is a capsule. Example arrowgrasses '' Triglochin'' include the Marsh Arrowgrass ('' Triglochin palustris''), the Sea Arrowgrass ('' Triglochin maritima''), and also other species like '' Triglochin trichophora'', '' Triglochin striata'' and '' Triglochin mucronata''.

Taxonomy

The genus '' Maundia'' was placed within the family Juncaginaceae by the APG II. The newer APG III version (2009), though, suggested it may be necessary to split ''Maundia'' off into its own monogeneric family, Maundiaceae, supported by the non-exclusive relationship of the genus to Juncaginaceae. This was achieved in the APG IV (2016), leaving only four genera in Juncaginaceae.

References

Bibliography

* * * , in * * , in *

External links

*
Juncaginaceae
in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards).
The families of flowering plants
descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval.'' Version: 9 March 2006. http://delta-intkey.com
Juncaginaceae in the ''Flora of North America''

NCBI Taxonomy browser

links at CSDL, Texas

Juncaginaceae of Mongolia in FloraGREIF
{{Authority control Alismatales families Aquatic plants