3159.000 Sphaerothylax Bisch. ex Krauss

Submerged freshwater herbs; basal part firmly appressed and attached to substrate, ribbon-like and branched. Stems absent or very short and hardly emerging from the thallus, or elongate and branched. Leaves floating and repeatedly forked. Spathellas (spathaceous bracts with enclosed flower) solitary or aggregated, ± sessile on the thalloid part, and in clusters in the axils of leaves on the elongated stems, subtended by 2 scale-like bracts, dehiscing irregularly at the apex, or laterally; the flower inverted (reflexed) within the unruptured spathella before anthesis. Pedicel long, bearing the flower erect. Tepals 2, minute. Fruit a subspherical capsule, 8-ribbed, dehiscing into 2 slightly unequal valves. Seeds black, numerous, flattened ovate.

Worldwide: Two species in Angola, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar.

Zimbabwe: 1 taxon.