Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Herbs or subshrubs usually less than 1 m tall.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. 3–5-veined. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in simple or compound, bracteate dichasia or glomerules. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Hypanthium subcylindrical to campanulate, variously pubescent with simple and stalked–stellate or branched hairs on the sinuses between calyx lobes. Calyx lobes erect, triangular, persistent, apex bristly. Corolla of 4 petals, white to pink, obovate to elliptic, usually ciliolate. Stamens 8, nearly similar to dimorphic; anthers subulate to ovoid or obovoid, connective horizontal or arcuate, short or prolonged below the anthers into a 2-lobed ventral appendage. Ovary inferior, distinct, 4-celled, apex bristly, placentation axile; ovules numerous; style simple; stigma terminal, punctiform to capitate.

Fruit: Capsules with loculicidal dehiscence; enclosed by the hypanthium. Seeds cochleate; minutely tuberculate; endosperm absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: