35. Sphaerothylax Bischoff ex Krauss
Sphaerothylax Bischoff ex Krauss, Flora 25: 426 (1844).
Anastrophea Weddell (1873).
Roots crustose, lobed with rounded lobes, resembling a liverwort, or ribbon-like and branched; stems arising from upper surface of root, either very short and simple, or elongate and branched, up to 50 cm or more long. Leaves either scale-like or repeatedly forked with linear segments, up to 10 cm or more long. Spathellas globose, rupturing irregularly. Flowers inverted in unruptured spathella, arising from upper surface of root or on elongate stems, solitary or in clusters; tepals 2, one each side of filament base; stamen 1 or perhaps sometimes 2; filament often flattened; pollen in dyads; ovaries 2-locular. Capsules subsessile, globose to subglobose; valves nearly equal, the larger one persistent, each with 3 wide and flattened ribs; stigmas ± 0.2 mm long, linear to ovate. Two or perhaps more spp., Madagascar, N tropical & southern Africa.
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