| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Corbichoniaceae Thulin.

~ Molluginaceae

Habit and leaf form. Sub- shrubs, or herbs. Plants somewhat succulent to non-succulent. Glabrous to papillose, annual, or perennial; prostrate to erect, without conspicuous aggregations of leaves. Mesophytic to xerophytic. Leaves alternate; spiral; mucronate, somewhat fleshy, or ‘herbaceous’; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; sub- orbicular, or ovate; pinnately veined; attenuate to the base. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire. Leaf development not ‘graminaceous’.

Leaf anatomy. The leaf lamina dorsiventral. Stomata present.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Young stems tetragonal in section. Internal phloem absent.

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes (lax). The ultimate inflorescence units cymose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; in terminal or ostensibly axillary lax cymes. Flowers regular; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla (assuming that the "petals" are not interpreted as petaloid stamens), or sepaline (if the "petals" are interpreted as staminodes); depending on interpretation, 5, or 20–50 ('many'). Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular; with membranous margins, non-fleshy; imbricate. Corolla if so interpreted, 20–25; gamopetalous; imbricate; regular; pale reddish-brownish, pink, mauve or magenta. Petals if interpreted a such, rather than staminodes, more or less clawed.

Androecium 15–25 ("about 20"), or 20–50 (or more, if "petals" are interpreted as staminodes). Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent (? - basally). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens (according to Thulin et al.), or including staminodes (? - if the "petals" be so intepreted). Staminodes if so interpreted, 20–25; external to the fertile stamens; petaloid. Stamens 15–25 ("about 20"); filantherous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colpate.

Gynoecium 5 carpelled. The pistil 5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; superior. Ovary 5 locular; sessile. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 5; free; apical. Placentation axile. Ovules "many"; arillate; crassinucellate (?).

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal. Seeds non-endospermic. Perisperm present. Seeds with starch. Cotyledons 2. Embryo curved. The radicle dorsal. Testa sub-reniform to sub-orbicular, with concentric ridges.

Physiology, phytochemistry. Betalains present. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type III (a).

Geography, cytology. Paleotropical and Cape. Sub-tropical and tropical. One species in drier parts of tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia, the other endemic to Namibia. X = 9.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Caryophylliflorae; Caryophyllales. Cronquist’s Subclass Caryophyllidae; Caryophyllales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Caryophyllanae. APG IV Order Caryophyllales.

Species 2. Genera 1; Corbichonia.

General remarks. Cf. e.g., Thulin et al. (2016), Taxon 65,775–793; Flora of Zimbabwe, https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata.

Illustrations. • Corbichonia decumbens, as Glinus trianthemoides: R. Wight (1850).

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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