| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Campynemataceae Dum.

Including Campynemaceae Dum.

Habit and leaf form. Small herbs. Plants green and photosynthesizing. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves, or without conspicuous aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves alternate; spiral (?); sessile; sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; linear, or lanceolate; parallel-veined; without cross-venules. Lamina margins entire.

Leaf anatomy. The leaf lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll containing crystals. The crystals raphides. Foliar vessels absent.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secondary thickening absent. The axial xylem without vessels.

Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels (?), or without vessels.

Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; when aggregated, in umbels, or in panicles. Inflorescences scapiflorous, or not scapiflorous; terminal; few flowered panicles or pseudo-umbels. Flowers bracteate; small; regular; 6 merous (according to Dahlgren, Clifford and Yeo 1985); cyclic; tricyclic. Perigone tube absent.

Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6; free (inserted near the top of the ovary); 2 whorled (3+3); petaloid; without spots, or spotted; pale, sometimes dotted-striated.

Androecium 6. Androecial members all equal; free of one another; 2 whorled (3+3). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6; isomerous with the perianth; alterniperianthial. Anthers dorsifixed, or basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; extrorse, or extrorse and introrse (in Campynemanthe). Microsporogenesis successive. Tapetum glandular. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 1 aperturate; sulcate; 2-celled.

Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled, or 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to eu-syncarpous; inferior. Ovary 1 locular (Campynema), or 3 locular (Campynemanthe). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1 (Campynemanthe), or 3 (Campynema). Placentation when unilocular parietal; when trilocular axile. Ovules in the single cavity when unilocular 10–50 (?); 10–50 per locule (?); anatropous; weakly crassinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Endosperm formation nuclear.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule; 20–50 seeded (‘many’). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Testa without phytomelan; pale red- brown.

Physiology, phytochemistry. Saponins/sapogenins present.

Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tasmania, New Caledonia.

Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Dahlgren et al. Superorder Liliiflorae; Melanthiales. APG III core angiosperms; Superorder Lilianae; non-commelinid Monocot. APG IV Order Liliales.

Species 3. Genera 2; Campynema, Campynemanthe.

Illustrations. • Campynemanthe neocaledonica, as Campynema: Rendle, J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 45 (1922). • Campynema lineare: Labillardière, 1804 (BHL).

We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.

Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 8th June 2026. delta-intkey.com’.

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