Comparative floral anatomy of Pontederiaceae

Abstract

Floral anatomy is described in eight species (representing five genera) of Pontederiaceae, and floral ontogeny is described in Pontederia cordata. The results are assessed in the context of recent phylogenetic work on Pontederiaceae, which indicates that the unilocular ovary condition has been achieved by two different, non-homologous routes in Pontederiaceae: via loss of interlocular septa in Heteranthera and Hydrothrix, and via pseudomonomery in Pontederia, which has a single fertile carpel. Absence of septal nectaries has evolved more than once in Pontederiaceae, at least in Heterantha and Monochoria, probably due to a transfer of the insect reward from nectar to pollen in these taxa. The presence of an elliptical or linear unvascularized appendage on the abaxial outer stamen in Monochoria is also probably correlated with enantiostyly. In Pontederia, air spaces in the ovary wall are modified into canals, each with a ring of apparently secretory epithelial cells. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2004, 144, 395–408.