Basellaceae

Madeira Vine Family

Fleshy, mucilaginous perennials or occasionally herbs with long, thin, twining stems and fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, broadly ovate, fleshy, without stipules. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, in spike-like clusters, small, regular, with 2 petal-like bracts. Perianth segments 5, free or joined at the base. Stamens 5. Carpels 3, united. Ovary superior having a single chamber with one basal ovule. Fruit a thin walled nutlet usually enclosed by the persistent fleshy perianth.

A family most closely related to the Portulacaceae.

A few species are grown as ornamentals or vegetables; the tubers of the genus Ullucus tuberosa are an important food crop in the Andes. Pigments of Basella fruit are used for food colouring in Asia.

Cultivated plant a rampant scrambling fleshy-leaved vine that has become quite widely naturalised.

4 genera and approximately 19 species, mostly from tropical America (1 species naturalised in Australia).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Basellaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

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kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Caryophyllanae
order      Caryophyllales
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
genus        Anredera Juss.