Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial; trichomes (1) pointed with surfaces ± smooth, (2) retrorsely barbed along shaft and at apex or only at apex, and (3) stinging. Stems usually erect or spreading, rarely prostrate or pendent on cliffs. Leaves cauline; petiole present; blade ovate, lobed or unlobed, margins crenate or dentate. Inflorescences dichasia and monochasia [solitary flowers]; peduncle inconspicuous [conspicuous]. Pedicels elongating in fruit. Flowers: hypanthium completely adnate to ovary; perianth whorls differentiated; sepals green, distinct, lanceolate, straplike, or narrowly ovate, shorter than petals; petals white, green, or yellow [reddish orange], connate proximally to 1/2+ length, spatulate or ovate, spreading or erect (then corolla essentially tubular) [erect proximally, divaricate distally (corolla salverform)], glabrous except apices sparsely hairy; nectary distal on ovary; stamens 15–150+, exserted or included; filaments monomorphic, filiform, longer or shorter than anthers; anthers without distal connective extension; staminodes absent; pistil 5-carpellate, placentae parietal; stigma lingulate, 5-lobed, papillate. Fruits capsules, dehiscing by apical valves [splitting longitudinally], cup-shaped, straight; sepals persistent. Seeds many, cylindric to ovoid, not dorsiventrally flattened, to 1 mm, not winged. x = 21.
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