Belongs within: Poales.
The Eriocaulaceae, pipeworts, are basally-leaved herbs mostly found growing in acidic wet soils or aquatically. The family has been divided between the subfamilies Eriocauloideae, with nectariferous flowers containing two staminal whorls, and Paepalanthoideae, with non-nectariferous flowers containing a single staminal whorl.
Characters (Flora of North America): Herbs, annual or perennial, caespitose or solitary, rosulate, rarely caulescent, mostly scapose, glabrous or variously pubescent with simple or compound hairs. Rootstocks rhizomes or stems, thickened, short to variously elongate; roots fibrous, spongy, or spongy-septate (diaphragmatic). Stems erect to repent or prostrate, axis sympodial or monopodial, sometimes branching. Leaves mostly many ranked in rosettes, sometimes in loose spirals, mostly grasslike; blade linear to linear-triangular, lingulate, tapering, base mostly clasping; veins parallel. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, usually simple (rarely compound), usually involucrate (rarely proliferative), buttonlike or short-cylindric; scape sheaths spathelike, tubular, enclosing scape base, distally open; scapes 1–many, usually simple (rarely compound), terete, usually twisted, mostly multiribbed; involucral bracts spirally imbricate series, usually chaffy or scarious, grading inward to receptacular bracts or these absent; receptacle glabrous or variously hairy. Flowers (florets) unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same (rarely different) plants, radially or bilaterally symmetric; sepals 2–3, distinct or variously connate, diverging from stipelike base or merely part of lobeless column; petals absent or 2–3, diverging from short to elongate stipe (part of androphore or gynophore) or merely part of lobeless column; stamens 2–4(–6), often unequal; filaments arising from floral axis, rarely epipetalous; anthers mostly black, 1–2-locular, 2–4-sporangiate, versatile or basifixed, dehiscence longitudinal; pollen 1-grooved, 3-nucleate; appendages present in some flowers, glandlike or peglike, rarely bladelike, sometimes fringed or variously cleft; pistil compound, 2–3-carpellate; ovary superior, raised on gynophore, one locule per carpel; ovules 1 per locule, adaxial-apical, pendulous, orthotropous, bitegmic; style terminal, appendaged or unappendaged, 2–3-branched, branches simple or apex rebranched. Fruits capsules, thin-walled, loculicidal. Seeds translucent, ovoid, ellipsoid, or broadly fusiform, mostly 1 mm or shorter, variously ribbed or sculptured; endosperm copious, mealy-starchy, with compound starch grains; embryo apical.
<==Eriocaulaceae [Eriocauleae, Eriocaulineae]DS04
| i. s.: BlastocaulonYY22
| Leiothrix spiralisRJ11
|--PaepalanthoideaeDS04
| | i. s.: PaepalanthusDS04
| |--Syngonanthus flavidulusDS04
| `--TonineaeDS04
| |--Tonina fluviatilisDS04
| `--Lachnocaulon Kunth 1841DS04, KC01
| `--L. ancepsDS04
`--EriocauloideaeDS04
|--MesanthemumDS04
`--EriocaulonDS04
| i. s.: E. australasicum [=Electrosperma australasicum]B78
| E. australeB78
| E. concretumLK14
| E. depressum [incl. E. heterogynum]B78
| E. deustumB78
| E. fistulosumLK14
| E. humboldtiiDS04
| E. inapertumLK14
| E. lividumLK14
| E. martianum Wallich ex Koernicke 1856 [=E. quinquangulare var. martianum (Wallich) Fyson 1921]SG02
| E. monoscapumB78
| E. nanumB78
| E. nigricansB78
| E. odontospermumLK14
| E. palghatense Ans. & Balak. 1994SG02
| E. pallidumB78
| E. patericolaLK14
| E. pusillumLK14
| E. pygmaeumLK14
| E. scariosumB78
| E. schultziiB78
| E. scullioniiLK14
| E. septangulare [incl. E. pellucidum]C55
| E. sexangulareB78
| E. setaceum [incl. E. intermedium]B78
| E. smithiiB78
| E. spectabileLK14
| E. tortuosumLK14
|--E. (sect. Anisopetalae) polycephalum [=E. longicuspis var. polycephalum]KD72
|--E. sect. Cristato-sepalaeKD72
| |--E. cuspidatumKD72
| |--E. elenoraeKD72
| |--E. margaretaeKD72
| |--E. stellulatumKD72
| `--E. vanheurckiiKD72
|--E. (sect. Hirsutae) wightianumKD72
|--E. sect. LeucantheraeKD72
| |--E. breviscapumKD72
| |--E. cinereumKD72 [incl. E. ciliiflorumB78, E. heteranthumB78, E. sieboldianumKD72]
| |--E. dalzellii [incl. E. rivulare]KD72
| `--E. ritchieanumKD72
`--E. sect. SimplicesKD72
|--E. achitonKD72
|--E. collinumKD72
|--E. conicumKD72
|--E. dianaeKD72
| |--E. d. var. dianaeKD72
| `--E. d. var. longibracteatumKD72
|--E. duthieiKD72
|--E. nepalenseKD72
|--E. quinquangulareKD72
|--E. sedgwickiiKD72
|--E. truncatumKD72
`--E. xeranthemumKD72
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[B78] Bentham, G. 1878. Flora Australiensis: A description of the plants of the Australian Territory vol. 7. Roxburghiaceae to Filices. L. Reeve & Co.: London.
[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.
[DS04] Davis, J. I., D. W. Stevenson, G. Petersen, O. Seberg, L. M. Campbell, J. V. Freudenstein, D. H. Goldman, C. R. Hardy, F. A. Michelangeli, M. P. Simmons, C. D. Specht, F. Vergara-Silva & M. Gandolfo. 2004. A phylogeny of the monocots, as inferred from rbcL and atpA sequence variation, and a comparison of methods for calculating jackknife and bootstrap values. Systematic Botany 29 (3): 467–510.
[KC01] Kirk, P. M., P. F. Cannon, J. C. David & J. A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth & Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi 9th ed. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).
[KD72] Kulkarni, A. R., & M. H. Desai. 1972. Family Eriocaulaceae in Kolhapur and its environs. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 69 (1): 231–235.
[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.
[RJ11] Rising, J. D., A. Jaramillo, J. L. Copete, P. G. Ryan & S. C. Madge. 2011. Family Emberizidae (buntings and New World sparrows). In: Hoyo, J. del, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 16. Tanagers to New World Blackbirds pp. 428–683. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona.
[SG02] Sardesai, M. M., S. P. Gaikwad, S. M. Bhuskute & S. R. Yadav. 2002. Some new records for the state of Maharashtra. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 567–569.
[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.