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The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

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Burmannia L.

Reference
Sp.Pl. [Linnaeus] 2:287 (1753)
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Family Burmanniaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Herbs. ‘Normal’ plants, or plants of very peculiar form (some being tiny saprophytes); sometimes vegetatively almost filamentous, or fungoid. Leaves well developed, or much reduced (in saprophytic species). Autotrophic, or saprophytic. Annual, or perennial; plants with a basal concentration of leaves, or with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Leaves alternate; spiral, or distichous; ‘herbaceous’, or membranous; sessile; sheathing. Leaf sheaths with free margins. Leaves simple. Leaf blades entire; linear; parallel-veined; without cross-venules. Vegetative anatomy. Plants without silica bodies. Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening absent. Roots. Roots with velamen, or without velamen.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the gynoecium (via septal nectaries, or from the top or sides of the ovary).

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’, or solitary (rarely); in cymes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal. Flowers pedicellate, or sessile; regular; 3 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Perigone tube present (tubular to trigonous, 6-lobed; tube usually with 3 prominent wings running from the base of the ovary to the lobes). Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6, or 3; 1 -whorled, or 2 -whorled; isomerous; petaloid; different in the two whorls (with the inner lobes smaller or absent); blue, or white, or yellow. Androecium 3. Androecial members adnate (to the tube); free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 3; isomerous with the perianth; oppositiperianthial. Anthers introrse to latrorse; tetrasporangiate; appendaged (connectives with 2 apical crests and/or a hanging, median, basal spur), or unappendaged. Pollen shed as single grains. Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 3 celled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; partly inferior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular. Styles 1; unbranched or 3-branched at apex; apical. Stigmas 3. Placentation axile. Ovules 10–50 per locule (? — ‘many’); anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules splitting irregularly (or dehiscing by lateral slits). Fruit 15–100 seeded (‘many’). Seeds ovoid or ellipsoid; scantily endospermic; winged. Embryo rudimentary at the time of seed release.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland. Northern Botanical Province.