| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Calectasiaceae S.L. Endlicher

~ Dasypogonaceae

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs (or rather, shrublets). Xerophytic. Leaves with disarticulating blades; small; alternate; spiral; imbricate; sessile; sheathing. Leaf sheaths not tubular; with free margins. Leaves simple. Lamina entire; linear, or lanceolate; parallel-veined.

Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic. The mesophyll not containing mucilage cells; containing crystals, or without crystals (? — no raphides). Foliar vessels absent.

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

Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels (with simple perforation plates).

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; terminal (on short branchlets); medium-sized; regular; 3 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Perigone tube present (short).

Perianth lilac-blue to purple, of ‘tepals’; 6; joined; 2 whorled; isomerous; petaloid; similar in the two whorls; blue, or purple (glossy, metallic).

Androecium 6. Androecial members adnate (at the throat); all equal to markedly unequal (the whorls somewhat unequal); free of one another. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6; diplostemonous. Anthers basifixed; terminally dehiscing via pores to dehiscing via short slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate. Pollen grains aperturate; 1 aperturate; sulcate.

Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1 (long, slender); attenuate from the ovary; apical; much longer than the ovary. Stylar canal present (?). Stigmas 1. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 3; funicled; ascending; non-arillate; anatropous.

Fruit non-fleshy; indehiscent; a nut; 1 seeded. Testa without phytomelan; membranous.

Geography, cytology. Australian. Western and South Australia and Victoria. X = 9.

Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Dahlgren et al. Superorder Liliiflorae; Asparagales. APG III core angiosperms; Superorder Lilianae; commelinid Monocot (?). APG IV Order Dasypogonales (or “unplaced” at ordinal level).

Species 2. Genera 1; only genus, Calectasia.

Illustrations. • Calectasia cyanea: Bot. Mag. 67 (1840). • Calectasia cyanea (photo).

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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