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Annual or perennial, prostrate, erect or twining herbs, or erect undershrubs or shrubs; hairs simple or rarely with 2 arms. Leaves entire, or rarely more or less deeply lobed, often spathulate and attenuate into the petiole, or more or less hastate or sagittate at the base. Flowers on axillary peduncles, in one-to few-flowered cymes or in dense involucrate heads. Sepals 5, equal or subequal, obtuse or acute. Corolla regular, medium-sized or small, campanulate or funnel-shaped, white, pink, blue or yellow, with 5 often not well-defined midpetaline bands; limb shallowly lobed or subentire. Stamens and style included. Stamens 5; filaments adnate to the corolla, often unequal, filiform; pollen smooth, ellipsoid. Disk annular or cup-shaped. Ovary 2-celled, each cell with 2 ovules; style 1, simple, filiform; stigmas 2, filiform. Capsule 2-celled, usually 4-valved. Seeds 4 or less, often verruculose, mostly glabrous, black or brown.
Annual or perennial herbs with erect, prostrate or twining stems. Leaves very variable but often hastate or sagittate. Flowers axillary in one-to few-flowered cymes or dense heads. Sepals 5, equal or subequal, obtuse to acute. Corolla campanulate or funnel-shaped, variously coloured, almost entire. Stamens and style included. Ovary 2-locular, 4-ovuled; style simple, filiform; stigmas 2, filiform. Capsule 2-locular, usually 4-valved. Seeds mostly glabrous, usually 4.A large genus of about 250 species which mainly occur in temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres; a few only occur in the tropics. The group comprising species 6–8 is taxonomically a difficult one and many intermediates occur. The following key should therefore be used with caution.
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes small shrubs, usually with twining or trailing stems but occasionally erect. Latex present, usually white. Lvs petiolate, entire or lobed, often sagittate. Fls solitary or in axillary or terminal cymes, occasionally in dense involucrate heads. Bracts minute or subequal to calyx but not concealing it. Sepals 5, equal or unequal. Corolla 5-lobed, funnelform, variously coloured, the mid-petaline bands often differently coloured and hairy. Stamens 5, included, inserted at base of corolla tube. Ovary surrounded by an annular disc, 2-locular; each loculus with 2-ovules. Style included. Stigma 2-lobed. Capsule usually 2-celled and 4-seeded, usually globose or subglobose. Seeds usually glabrous but sometimes verrucose.
Sep 5, equal or nearly so, appressed; cor funnelform; stamens included, inserted near the base of the cor; pollen prolate to subspheroidal, with 3(4) elongate colpi; ovary 4-ovulate, bilocular or becoming 4-locellar by the development of secondary partitions between the ovules; style 1, slender, elongate; stigmas 2, linear, somewhat flattened, gradually tapering; erect, twining, or trailing perennial herbs with oblong to cordate-ovate or hastate lvs and pink and white fls borne singly or often several together on axillary peduncles; bracts 2, mostly small and well removed from the fl, not concealing the cal. 200+, cosmop., mainly Old World.
Fls solitary or in few-fld axillary or terminal corymbs; bracts small, distant from fl.; calyx divided nearly or quite to base; corolla 5-angled, stamens inserted at base of corolla-tube; style filiform, stigmas 2, linear; capsule 2-loculed, each locule with 1-2 seeds. Annual or perennial herbs, sts woody near base. About 200, mainly temperate, spp.; the N.Z. spp. endemic.
Stamens 5, usually unequal, included, filaments filiform or somewhat linear, often dilated at base; pollen smooth, ellipsoid.
Corolla funnel-shaped, white, pink or pinkish-purple, shallowly 5-lobed, midpetaline areas often hairy towards the apices.
Leaves petiolate or nearly sessile, very variable, entire or lobed, often cordate, but often nastate or sagittate.
Annual or perennial herbs with erect, prostrate or twining stems.
Flowers axillary in 1-few-flowered cymes, sometimes subumbellate.
Sepals 5, equal or subequal, persistent, obtuse to acute.
Style simple, filiform, included; stigmas 2, filiform.
Seeds usually 4, black or brown, usually glabrous.
Capsule bilocular, usually 4-valved.
Ovary bilocular, 4-ovuled.
