Synonym: Ficoidaceae; Mesembryanthemaceae; Tetragoniaceae, Sesuviaceae.
English: Vygies; Fig-marigolds;
Ice plants; Stone plants; Carpet weeds; Carpetweed family.
German: Eiskrautgewächse; Mittagsblumengewächse.
French: Aïzoacées; Aizoacées; Aizoacée.
Dutch: IJskruidfamilie.
Content: oxalates; alkaloids.
Botany: 135 genera; ± 1900 species; succulent.
BotanyAnnual to perennial herbs, or subshrubs, rarely geophytes.
Stem: with abnormal secondary growth, secondary xylem rayless; with bladder cell idioblasts.
Leaves: succulent; opposite; with bladder cell idioblasts or xeromorpbic (if uniform), leaf sheaths or stipuliform appendages in some genera.
Inflorescence: cymose, rarely solitary.
Flowers: corolla staminodial; open at noon; colourful and showy; with a connate perianth-stamen tube, peri- to epigynous: perianth consisting either of sepals and petals of staminodial origin, or of tepals with petaloid inner and sepaloid outer surfaces.
Fruits: capsules, hygrochastic, open when wetted; nuts or circumscissile capsules, seeds rarely arillate.
DD: Nitrogen; Carbon series.LiteratureKlak Cornelia; Bolus Herbarium, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebosch, South Africa; Cornelia.Klak@uct.ac.za