| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Cephalotaceae Neger

Habit and leaf form. Herbs; non-laticiferous, without coloured juice. Plants carnivorous. Trapping mechanism passive. The traps consisting of ‘pitchers’ (cf. Nepenthaceae). Perennial (rhizomatous); with a basal aggregation of leaves. Helophytic to mesophytic (in the drier parts of peaty swamps). Conspicuously conspicuously heterophyllous (the inner leaves flat and simple, the outer at ground level with blades modified as pitchers). Leaves medium-sized; alternate; spiral; petiolate (both types); non-sheathing; those not modified as pitchers simple; epulvinate. Lamina entire; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate; leaf development not ‘graminaceous’.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Primary vascular tissues of the rhizome in a cylinder, without separate bundles.

The vessel end-walls scalariform. The axial xylem with tracheids.

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. The ultimate inflorescence units cymose. Inflorescences scapiflorous; terminal; each consisting of a raceme of cymules. Flowers small; regular; 6 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium present. Hypogynous disk present (setose-glandular).

Perianth sepaline; 6; 1 whorled. Calyx 6; 1 whorled; gamosepalous (basally). Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx regular; persistent; accrescent; valvate. Corolla absent.

Androecium 12. Androecial members perigynous; markedly unequal (the six alternating with the sepals longer); free of one another; 2 whorled (the alternisepalous members being ‘slightly forward’). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 12; diplostemonous. Anthers dorsifixed; versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; strongly introrse; appendaged (in that the connective is apically swollen and glandular). Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.

Gynoecium 6 carpelled; apocarpous; eu-apocarpous to semicarpous (carpels free to basally united); superior. Carpel apically stigmatic; 1(–2) ovuled. Placentation basal. Ovules ascending; epitropous; with dorsal raphe; non-arillate; anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Endothelium differentiated.

Fruit non-fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpel dehiscent; a follicle. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2; plano-convex. Embryo straight.

Physiology, phytochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present; quercetin and myricetin. Ellagic acid present. Aluminium accumulation not found.

Geography, cytology. Temperate to sub-tropical. South Western Australia. X = 10.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rosiflorae; Saxifragales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Rosales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; fabid. APG IV Order Oxalidales.

Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Cephalotus.

Illustrations. • Cephalotus follicularis, photo (Macfarlane). • Cephalotus follicularis: Bot. Mag. 58 (1831). • Cephalotus follicularis (details): Bot. Mag. 58 (1831). • Le Maout and Decaisne: Cephalotus. • Le Maout and Decaisne: Cephalotus. • Cephalotus follicularis: Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3 (1891).

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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