A paludal perennial herb with creeping or somewhat floating root stock. Leaves petiolate, alternate with ternate lamina. Inflorescence usually a raceme with large peduncles, scapes like. Flowers 5-merous, pedicellate with or without a bract. Sepals deeply 5-lobed, lobes oblong or lanceolate. Corolla campanulate, bell-shaped with densely ciliate lobes on the inner side, deciduous. Stamens inserted on the corolla tube with arrow shaped anthers. Style filiform with a bilobed stigma, ovary unilocular, disc hypogynous, fleshy. Capsule globose, unilocular, shortly 2-lobed, dehiscing from the apex. Seeds many smooth.

A monotypic genus widely distributed in the north temperate regions.

Lower Taxon

• Menyanthes trifoliata Linn.