Polygonaceae
蓼科
特徵描述
作者
LIU, HO-YIH
型態特徵
Annual or perennial herbs, shrubs, trees or climbing lianas; stems often swollen at the nodes. Leaves mostly alternate; stipules often connate into a tubular sheath called an ocrea. Flowers hermaphroditic or unisexual, regular, pedicellate, articulate to the pedicel, often with stipitate base above the articulation; perianth segments (2-)5- or 6-merous, in two whorls, basally connate into a floral tube, persistent and often enlarged in fruit. Stamens usually 6–9, perigynous, in 2 whorls. Carpels mostly 3; ovary superior, unilocular; styles 1–4; ovule single, basal or free-central. Fruit an achene or a small nut, often subtended by the accrescent perianth.
屬
About 30 to 43 genera with more than 1,100 species worldwide. Three genera, with 45 species and varieties in Taiwan. Several genera, including Antigonon, Coccoloba, Fagopyrum, Muehlenbeckia, and Rheum, are in cultivation.
