Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennial herbs or shrubs.

Stems: Stems 4–angled.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, alternate, or sometimes whorled. Margins entire. Sessile or subsessile. Stipules minute or absent.

Flowers: Flowers usually solitary in the leaf axils, sometimes in spike-like or subpaniculate inflorescences. Calyx teeth 4–6, with an equal number of appendages in the sinuses, valvate, appearing as lobes on the floral tube. Corolla of 4–6, rarely absent, alternate with the sepals, distinct, attached at summit of or within floral tube, crumbled in bud. Stamens 4–12, inserted rather low within the floral tube; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 2–4(–6)-carpellate, with as many cells, at least at base, oblong, 2-celled; ovules anatropous, ascending; style 1; stigma usually capitate.

Fruit: Capsules membranous; dehiscing usually irregularly; sometimes 2–valved. Seeds numerous; minute; flat or angled; endosperm absent or very scanty.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: