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Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs, infrequently small trees, the indumentum mostly of stellate hairs. Leaves usually petiolate, the blade simple to palmatiparted, palminerved. Flowers axillary and solitary or in corymbiform, racemiform or paniculiform, terminal inflorescences, generally pedicellate; epicalyx of 5-so bract-lets, these distinct or more or less united at the base, sometimes adnate to the base of the calyx, persistent; calyx 5-merous, campanulate or cupuliform, dentate or lobate, rarely apiculate, persistent; petals erect or spreading, more or less unguicu-late, adnate to the base of the staminal tube, longer than the calyx, variously col-ored; staminal tube shorter to longer than the corolla, antheriferous throughout or usually on the upper part only below the 5-dentate or 5-lobate apex, the filaments few to numerous, terete, the anthers reniform; ovary 5-locular, the locules 1-ovulate; style branches 10, the stigmas capitate or discoid. Fruit separating into 5 mericarps, these usually triquetrous-obovoid, muticous or awned, glabrous or not, more or less dehiscent; seeds glabrous or variously pubescent; endosperm absent; cotyledons folded.
Annual to perennial herbs or shrubs. Lvs usually angled or lobed. Fls axillary and solitary, or in infls with reduced lvs; epicalyx segments 5 or more, united in part or free; calyx evenly 5-toothed; petals spreading or closed. Style branches twice as many as loculi, clavate. Fr. of 5, 1-seeded, indehiscent, sometimes awned mericarps arranged in a single flat whorl and separating from axis at maturity.
Staminal tube dilated at the base, truncate and 5-toothed at the apex, bearing the free terete filaments on the upper portion (rarely nearly down to the base).
Flowers yellow to white, pink, mauve or reddish, pedicellate or subsessile, solitary or occasionally in terminal subcapitate racemes or spikes.
Carpels 5, 1-ovulate; style-branches terete, usually 10 or occasionally fewer but always more than 5; stigmas capitate, often penicillate.
Fruit of 5 indehiscent 1-seeded carpels separating from the torus, sometimes ribbed or winged, muticous or awned; pericarp thin or woody.
Epicalyx of 5–16 ovate to linear or filiform bracts, free or ± connate, shorter or longer than the calyx.
Leaves usually petiolate, varying in shape, undivided to palmatipartite, often cordate at the base.
Annual, biennial or perennial herbs or shrubs, usually erect.
Calyx saucer-shaped to campanulate; lobes usually ovate.
Seeds reniform; cotyledons folded; endosperm absent.
Petals longer than the calyx, sometimes clawed.
