Luzuriaga Ruiz & Pav.
Luzuriaga Ruiz et Pav. nom. cons. : type sp., L. radicans Ruiz et Pav. of S. America.
Fls solitary, or few and axillary; pedicel arising from a group of small membr. scales. Per. white, spreading; segs free subequal. Stamens free; filaments glab., erect. Ovary sessile, ovoid, 3-locular; style terete; stigma obscurely 3-lobed. Fr. subglobose. Seeds few, pale. Glab. subshrubs with thin, branched, jointed stems, the lower nodes with small, membr. scales, the upper nodes with small, alt., oblong to elliptic, ± sessile, resupinate lvs. A few spp. of Peru, Chile, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Is and N.Z. N.Z. sp. endemic.
Krause (Pflanzenfam. 15A, 1930, 379) takes a much wider view of the genus, Skottsberg (K. svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 50, 1913, 20) a narrower one than that adopted here.
