CALYCERACEAE

family of small and economically unimportant dicotyledonous flowering plants containing six genera (Bopis, Calycera, Acicarpha, Acarpha, Gamocarpha, and Moschopsis) with 60 species distributed in Central and South America. One species (Acicarpha tribuloides) occurs as a roadside weed in Florida. Plants of this group are small herbs, occasionally somewhat woody near the base, with alternating leaves and with flowers in dense heads surrounded by a series of small, green, leaflike bracts (an involucre). The flowers are bisexual or separately male and female, have an inferior, one-chambered ovary (i.e., with the other floral parts arising at the upper end of the female structure), and have a four- to six-part, sometimes leafy, calyx (fused sepals) and a tubular or more open corolla (fused petals) of four to six lobes. The anthers (male pollen-producing structures) number four to six and arise from near the mouth of the corolla in positions alternating with the corolla lobes. The family Calyceraceae has been placed in the bellflower or teasel orders (Campanulales and Dipsacales, respectively), but recent opinion favours placing it in its own order, Calycerales. Its relationships are considered to be closest to the bellflower order, but it is recognized as having ties with the sunflower, or aster, order (Asterales) as well.