Herbaceous root parasites, monoecious or dioecious (inflorescences bisexual or unisexual),
glabrous; rhizome simple or branched, often stellate warty; stems breaking through rootstock
within a short cupular sheath. Leaves 2 - 40, whorled, opposite, distichous or spirally arranged,
scale-like, sessile by a broad base, accrescent upwards. Inflorescences spadix-like, terminal,
enveloped by topmost leaves or not. Male flowers: inserted on the main rachis in axils of short
wide truncate bracts, pedicelled; sepals 3 - 5, usually 4, free, valvate in bud, later patentreflexed;
stamens 3 - 5, opposite to tepals or several entirely connate into an ovoid globose or
flattened column; filaments short; anthers free or connate; anther-thecae linear, vertical. Female
flowers: on numerous crowded minute lateral spadicels, mixed with club-shaped bodies; sepals absent; ovary 1-loculed; ovule 1, pendulous; style 1, slender; stigma terminal, small. Fruits
minute, crustaceous, indehiscent, nut-like; seeds globose, adhering to pericarp; embryo
subglobose, consisting of only 2 or 3 cells.
Madagascar to Japan, S. & S.E. Asia to Australia and Polynesia, in tropical to temperate
areas, ca 15 species; 7 in India.
Literature.
GRIFFITH, W. (1846). On the Indian species of Balanophora and on a new genus of
the family Balanophoraceae. Trans. Linn. Soc. London 20: 93 - 108, tt. 3 - 8. HANSEN, B. (1972). The
genus Balanophora J.R. Forster & G. Forster - A taxonomic monograph. Dansk. Bot. Ark. 28: 1 - 188, ff.
1 - 44, tt. 1 - 8. MURATA, J. (1988). Morphology and distribution of Balanophora fungosa J.R. et G.
Forst. (Balanophoraceae). J. Jap. Bot. 63: 201 - 210, illus.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1 a. Plants monoecious, male and female flowers in the same inflorescence
2
b. Plants dioecious, male and female flowers in different inflorescences
4
2 a. Leaves 2 - 4, more or less connate at base, in one whorl at midrib of stem; male flowers mostly
3-merous; anthers transversely opening
4 a. Specimens with male flowers only (flowers at proximal and distal parts of inflorescences not
typically developed)
5
b. Specimens with female flowers only
9
5 a. Male flowers mostly 3-merous; anthers 3, transversely opening
6
b. Male flowers mostly 4 - 6-merous; anthers united into a conspicuous synandrium; thecae
longitudinally opening, in some species many times transversely divided
7
6 a. Leaves verticillate, in one whorl or more or less connate
b. Sepals oblong-elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate; synandrium elongated, oblong-elliptic, slightly
obconical and somewhat compressed in anterior-posterior direction; leaves always spirally
arranged