Barclaya
Barclaya is a genus of eight species of flowering plants of the family Nymphaeaceae. Barclaya are aquatic plants native to tropical Asia. The genus was named in honour of the American-born English brewer and patron of science Robert Barclay.
Description
Vegetative characteristics
Its species are perennial, aquatic, rhizomatous herbs with slender, horizontal, villous-pubescent, creeping or tuberous, often stoloniferous rhizomes. The petiolate leaves are mostly submerged and do not float on the water surface. The linear, oblong, or suborbicular lamina with a cordate base has an entire margin.Generative characteristics
The solitary, pedunculate, sumberged or emerged, bisexual, often cleistogamous flowers have 4–5 hypogynous outer tepals, and 8–20 inner tepals, which are basally fused to a tube. The gynoecium consists of 7–12 fused carpels with curved stigmatic appendages. The globular, irregularly dehiscent 1.0–1.5 cm wide fruit, which is enclosed in persistent sepals and petals, bears globose, echinate seeds.Cytology
The diploid chromosome count is 2n = 36.Taxonomy
The genus Barclaya Wall. was first published by Nathaniel Wallich in 1827 with Barclaya longifolia as the type species.Though Hydrostemma is a name that is older than the name Barclaya, having been published 6 months earlier, the name Barclaya has been "conserved" as it was deemed being much better known than Hydrostemma.
Species
Rejected classification
The separate family Barclayaceae H.L.Li was published in 1955. It has been believed to be separate, due to the extended perianth tube arising from the top of the ovary and by stamens that are joined basally. However, morphological and genetic studies support the position of Barclaya in the family Nymphaeaceae.A separate order Barclayales Doweld was proposed in 2001.
The accepted placement of Barclaya is within the family Nymphaeaceae of the order Nymphaeales.