Saururaceae is a plant family comprising four genera and seven species of

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s native to eastern and southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The family has been recognised by most taxonomists, and is sometimes known as the "lizard's-tail family". The

APG IV system The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publishe ...

(2016; unchanged from the 2009

APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fur ...

, the 2003

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Gro ...

and the 1998

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved AP ...

) assigned it to the order

Piperales Piperales is an order of flowering plants (4,170 recognized species). It necessarily includes the family Piperaceae but other taxa have been included or disincluded variously over time. Well-known plants which may be included in this order inclu ...

in the clade

magnoliids Magnoliids (or Magnoliidae or Magnolianae) are a clade of flowering plants. With more than 10,000 species, including magnolias, nutmeg, bay laurel, cinnamon, avocado, black pepper, tulip tree and many others, it is the third-largest group of angio ...

Species

*''

Anemopsis californica The monotypic genus ''Anemopsis'' has only one species, ''Anemopsis californica'', with the common names yerba mansa or lizard tail. It is a perennial (plant), perennial herb in the lizard tail family (Saururaceae) and prefers very wet soil or ...

'' (Nutt.) Hook. & Arn. (yerba mansa). – North America. *'' Gymnotheca chinensis''

Decne. Joseph Decaisne (7 March 1807 – 8 January 1882) was a French botanist and agronomist. He became an ''aide-naturaliste'' to Adrien-Henri de Jussieu (1797-1853), who served as the chair of rural botany. It was during this time that he began to stu ...

– Asia. *'' Gymnotheca involucrata'' S. J. Pei. – Asia. *''

Houttuynia cordata ''Houttuynia cordata'', also known as fish mint, fish leaf, rainbow plant, chameleon plant, heart leaf, fish wort, or Chinese lizard tail, is one of two species in the genus ''Houttuynia'' (the other being ''H. emeiensis''). It is a flower ...

'' Thunberg. – Asia. *''

Houttuynia emeiensis ''Houttuynia'' is a genus of two species in the Saururaceae native to Southeast Asia. One species, '' H. cordata'', is widely cultivated as a culinary herb. The genus was originally described in 1783 by Carl Peter Thunberg when he formally ...

'' Z.Y.Zhu & S.L.Zhang - Asia. *''

Saururus cernuus ''Saururus cernuus'' (lizard's tail, water-dragon, dragon's tail, swamp root) is a medicinal plant, medicinal and ornamental plant native to eastern North America. It grows in wet areas or shallow water, and can be up to about a meter tall. The ...

'' L. (lizard's tail, water-dragon)– North America. *''

Saururus chinensis ''Saururus chinensis'', commonly known as Asian lizard's tail, is an herb that grows in low, damp places to more than 1 meter high, endemic to China, India, Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands), Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam. Its leaves are gre ...

'' (Loureiro) Baillon. – Asia. *†''

Saururus tuckerae ''Saururus'' is a genus of plants in the family Saururaceae containing two species. ''Saururus cernuus'' is native to North America, and ''Saururus chinensis'' is native to Asia. Fossil record Several fossil seeds of †''Saururus bilobatus'' ha ...

'' -

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn ...

*†'' Saururus aquilae'' -

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

(

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian s ...

) *†'' Saururus stoobensis'' -

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

References

External links

Saururaceae
in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards)
''The families of flowering plants''

links at CSDL, Texas
Magnoliid families {{Piperales-stub