Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Low annual to perennial herbs, often fleshy and growing in saline areas.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, often with a few secondary leaf fascicles in the principal leaf axils, and then leaves appearing whorled. Blades linear to filiform, semiterete. Apex acute to acuminate. Base leaf bases often connate around the stem. Blades often fleshy. Margins entire. 1-veined. Sessile. Stipules dry and membranous.

Flowers: Flowers in terminal, racemose cymes. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic. Calyx of 5 sepals, distinct, nearly distinct, or connate into a conspicuous tube. Corolla of 5 petals, entire. Stamens 2–10, distinct or adnate to petals at base to form a short tube, which may be adnate to the gynophore or sometimes adnate to lower part of calyx, petaloid staminodes sometimes present; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior; styles 3, distinct or nearly so, filiform, 0.2–3 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3, linear along adaxial surface of styles.

Fruit: Capsules dehiscing by 3(5) valves. Seeds compressed to reniform–globose; the surface smooth or roughened; often with winged margins; perisperm starchy; hard or rarely soft; true endosperm absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: