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Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes slightly shrubby at the base, with erect, decumbent or ± climbing 4-angled stems, glabrous to hispid and sometimes with small prickles. Leaves in whorls of 3–10–many; blades setaceous to ovate, sometimes with prickly margins; stipules foliar and counted with the leaves. Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual, usually very small, arranged in a basically thyrsoid inflorescence, but mostly in exinvolucrate ebracteate axillary or terminal cymes or rarely solitary; pedicel articulated with the calyx. Calyx-tube ovoid or globose; limb obsolete, but usually with a ring of sessile colleters. Corolla usually white, yellow or reddish, rotate; lobes (3–)4(–5). Stamens (3–)4; filaments short, inserted in the very short tube. Ovary 2-locular; ovules solitary in each locule, affixed to the septum, amphitropous; styles 2, short, sometimes connate below; stigmas capitate. Disc annular. Fruit 2-lobed, each lobe with 1 seed, leathery and ± dry or somewhat to quite distinctly fleshy, smooth or tuberculate, glabrous, hairy or with hooked bristles. Seeds with membranous testa adhering to the pericarp, dorsally convex, ventrally excavated; albumen horny.
Erect or decumbent herbs or vines, the stems often 4-angled, slender. Leaves 3-4 or more at a node, verticillate; stipules foliaceous. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, in dichasial panicles, the flowers not subtended by an involucre. Flowers bisexual, unisexual or polygamous dioecious, pedicellate; hypanthium articulate with the pedicel; calycine cup ovoid or globose, the lobes reduced or absent; corolla white, yellow or green, the lobes 3-4, valvate in the bud; stamens 2-4, exserted, the styles 2, the stigmas capitate; ovary 2-celled, the ovules soli-tary. Fruits didymous, fleshy or dry, separating finally into closed segments or only one carpel maturing; seeds concave.
Annual or perennial herbs with slender, usually 4-angled stems. Lvs and leaflike stipules similar, in whorls of 4-12, mainly sessile or subsessile. Fls small, usually ☿, rarely unisexual, in terminal or axillary panicles or cymes, rarely solitary; ultimate infl. branches with or without bracts; bracteoles 0. Calyx a minute ridge. Corolla (3)-4-(5)-lobed, usually rotate with very short or almost no tube, rarely funnelform. Stamens 4, usually very short. Ovary 2-celled; ovules 1 per cell; styles 2, connate towards base; stigmas capitate. Fr. dry, of 2, 1-seeded mericarps, glabrous or variously hairy, sometimes bristly.
Fls small, perfect, or plants polygamous or dioec. Infl. cymose or reduced to a solitary fl. Calyx a minute ring, teeth obsolete; corolla rotate. tube very short. lobes (3)-4-(5). valvate; stamens 4. exserted; styles 2, connate near base, stigmas capitate. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 per cell, disk nectariferous. Fr. mostly dry, of paired 1-seeded cocci, testa adherent to pericarp. Annual to perennial slender herbs with 4-angled stems and lvs and lflike stipules forming whorls of 4-12. Sub-cosmopolitan genus with over 300 spp. The N.Z. spp. endemic Flowering and fruiting season ±11-6.
Cal-lobes none; cor rotate, with (3)4 short lobes, varying in a few spp. to cupulate or funnelform with the lobes longer than or about equaling the tube; stamens mostly shorter than the cor; ovary bilocular, with a single axile ovule in each cell; styles 2, short; stigmas capitate; fr dry or seldom fleshy, of 2 globose or subglobose carpels, or one carpel abortive; each carpel indehiscent, 1-seeded, sometimes bristly; herbs with slender, 4-angled stems and whorled lvs, the small cymose fls ebracteolate, terminating the branches or axillary. 300, cosmop.
Fruit dry (in the Flora Zambesiaca area), glabrous or variously hairy, dehiscing into 2 (sub) globose or reniform mericarps, each with a single seed, round on dorsal side, ± excavated on ventral side; one mericarp occasionally aborted.
Corolla rotate or (sub) campanulate, greenish (-yellow), creamy white to bright yellow, lobes ovate to triangular, acute to acuminate.
Ovary bilocular, one ovule in each chamber, crowned by an often 2-lobed disk; style branches 2, joined below; stigmas capitate.
Flowers in axillary and/or terminal many-to few-flowered cymes, hermaphrodite (and protandrous), rarely unisexual, 4-merous.
Leaves in whorls of 4–10, (sub)sessile, blades linear, lanceolate to (ob)ovate, mostly with a prominent midvein (1-nerved).
Stems erect, creeping or climbing, often distinctly 4-angled, glabrous, hairy or with recurved prickles.
Perennial herbs or annuals.
Calyx lobes obsolete.
Anthers exserted.
