Glabrous, prostrate, annual herbs; leaves opposite, shortly petiolate, lamina entire, nerves terminating at the margin in a small gland or pore; stipules deciduous. Flowers solitary in leaf-axils; sepals 3 or 4, obtuse, free, ± flat, inconspicuous; petals as many as but larger than sepals; stamens opposite sepals; ovary 3–4-locular; styles as many as locules, free. Fruit a membranous, depressed-globose capsule, dehiscing radially. Seeds c. cylindric, sometimes slightly curved, trabeculate.
About 20 species, cosmopolitan; 1 endemic species in Australia.
Source:
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Elatinaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 313–316. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
