TRIURIDALES

order of monocotyledonous flowering plants comprising the family Triuridaceae, with seven genera of small, nongreen herbs that obtain food from dead organic matter (i.e., as saprophytes). The leaves are reduced to colourless scales, and the flowers are very small, generally unisexual (separately male or female), and have three to eight perianth segments (petallike structures). Plants of the order are distributed in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and Asia. The larger genera include Sciaphila (50 species) and Andruris (16 species). The order is thought to have had an evolutionary origin in common with the water-plantain order (Alismales).