Macarthuriaceae Christenh.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M., Brockington, Samuel F., Christin, Pascal-Antoine & Sage, Rowan F., 2014, On the disintegration of Molluginaceae: a new genus and family (Kewa, Kewaceae) segregated from Hypertelis, and placement of Macarthuria in Macarthuriaceae, Phytotaxa 181 (4), pp. 238-242 : 240

Macarthuriaceae Christenh. , fam. nov.

Type of the family:— Macarthuria Hügel ex Endlicher (1837: 11) .

These are rigid or wiry, rush-like, perennial herbs or subshrubs with green stems. Leaves are alternate, with or without a petiole, lacking stipules. The blades are simple, linear or progressively reduced upwards to scales along the stem. Leaf blades have entire margins and obscure venation. Inflorescences are many-flowered, axillary or terminal compound cymes, or flowers solitary in the leaf axils. Flowers are actinomorphic and bisexual. The five or ten sepals are in two whorls and fused at the base. Petals are five and free, or absent. The eight stamens have filiform filaments that are fused to each other at the base. Anthers are basifixed and opening by lengthwise slits. The superior ovary is composed of three carpels that are fused into a single (or rarely three) locule(s). The three stylodes are fused into a single style at the base, each with an unlobed stigma. Fruits are loculicidal capsules with up to ten seeds.

The family differs from Molluginaceae and Microteaceae in having five petals (usually absent in Molluginaceae and Microteaceae ), the basifixed anthers (dorsifixed in Molluginaceae and Microteaceae ) and the three carpels forming a single locule (one to five carpels each forming a locule in Molluginaceae ). They are shrubs that predominately photosynthesize with their rush-like stems; the leaves are often reduced and insignificant.