Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual or perennial herbs.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. 3–7-veined. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers few in terminal cymes, each one subtended by a pair of deciduous, sessile bracteoles. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Hypanthium obconical, subcylindrical, or narrowly campanulate, terete (cylindrical), glabrous to sparsely glandular bristly. Calyx lobes 4, deltate, persistent, apex acute, obtuse, or apiculate. Corolla of 4 petals, pink or rarely white, obovate to elliptic–obovate, early deciduous. Stamens 8, markedly dimorphic, sometimes subequal or essentially equal; anthers linear–oblong to subulate, with a ventrally inclined apical pore, connective prolonged dorsally near the filament insertion into a minute lobule and prolonged ventrally at base of anthers into an upturned, bifid or 2–3-lobed appendage at junction with filament. Ovary inferior, distinct, 4-celled, glandular puberulent at apex, placentation axile; ovules numerous; style simple; stigma terminal.

Fruit: Capsules with loculicidal dehiscence; enclosed by the accrescent hypanthium at maturity. Seeds cochleate; prominently ribbed and with a terminal hilum; endosperm absent.

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