Burmanniaceae Blume
Fls bisexual, solitary or in a simple or bifid cincinnus, actinomorphic (occ. zygomorphic). Per. petaloid, tube campanulate to urceolate, lobes in 2 whorls of 3, one or both sts lacking. Stamens 3 or 6; anther sessile on per.-tube and dehiscing laterally and horizontally, or with short filaments and pendent within the tube and dehiscing longtiudinally; connective broad, sts elaborately lobed. Ovary inferior, 1–3-locular; ovules ∞, anatropous with 2 integuments, funicle often long; style simple; stigmas 3. Fr. us. capsular, sts fleshy; dehiscence various. Seeds minute. Annual or perennial herb, green and autotrophic or saprophytic and often colourless. Lvs alt., entire, simple, exstipulate, linear where not reduced to scales. Genera 10–20 according to views of different authors. Widely distributed in tropics but extending both north and south in both hemispheres.
Various subdivisions of the family have been proposed, the tribe Thismieae (= Family Thismiaceae Miquel Fl. Ind. Bat. 3, 1858, 615) differing from Burmannieae in (a) circumscissile perianth, leaving a small basal ring sts persistent in fr.; (b) very short style; (c) 6 (occ. 3) stamens pendent from an annulus in the mouth of per.-tube; and (d) anthers splitting longitudinally. Since the last comprehensive revision (Jonker, Meded. bot. Mus. Herb. Utrecht, No. 51, 1938) Airy Shaw (Kew Bull. for 1952 1952, 279) has described a third tribe Haplothismieae which in some respects bridges the gap between the other two tribes.
