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Small epiphytic, epilithic, or terrestrial, succulent herbs, creeping, prostrate, hanging, ascending or erect. Leaves alternate, opposite or in whorls or 3-7 per node; pinnately or palmately veined. Inflorescences terminal, leaf-opposed or axillary spikes, solitary or few together, occasionally paniculate; flowers numerous, loosely or less often densely arranged, sometimes partly sunken in the rachis; rachis glabrous (but hairy in P. tetraphylla); floral bracts peltate, mainly rounded, glabrous, often glandular. Stamens 2, filaments short, anthers 2-locular; ovary with 1 style and stigma, or stigma sessile. Fruits minute nuts or drupes (“berries”), (sub)basely or laterally attached, sessile or somewhat stipitate when mature, occasionally somewhat sunken in rachis, smooth or sticky, globose, ellipsoid or cylindrical, apex obliquely scutellate or truncate, with or without a slender beak, stigma apical, central or at base of beak.
Small epiphytic, epilithic, or terrestrial, succulent herbs, creeping, prostrate, hanging, ascending or erect. Leaves alternate, opposite or in whorls or 3-7 per node; pinnately or palmately veined. Inflorescences terminal, leaf-opposed or axillary spikes, solitary or few together, occasionally paniculate; flowers numerous, loosely or less often densely arranged, sometimes partly sunken in the rachis; rachis glabrous (but hairy in P. tetraphylla); floral bracts peltate, mainly rounded, glabrous, often glandular. Stamens 2, filaments short, anthers 2-locular; ovary with 1 style and stigma, or stigma sessile. Fruits minute nuts or drupes (“berries”), (sub)basely or laterally attached, sessile or somewhat stipitate when mature, occasionally somewhat sunken in rachis, smooth or sticky, globose, ellipsoid or cylindrical, apex obliquely scutellate or truncate, with or without a slender beak, stigma apical, central or at base of beak.
Herbs annual or, usually perennial, (Chinese species) rooting from nodes toward base of stem and with erect or ascending flowering shoots. Stems usually dwarf, fleshy; vascular bundles free, scattered. Prophylls absent. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, main lateral veins all basal; reticulate veins inconspicuous. Flowers bisexual, very small, often within depressions in rachis, sessile. Inflorescence a spike, usually erect, terminal or axillary, rarely leaf-opposed, solitary, paired, or clustered; rachis as thick or slightly thicker than peduncle; bracts ± orbicular, peltate (sometimes oblong and/or not peltate). Stamens 2; filaments short, thecae ± globose, ellipsoid, or cylindric. Ovary 1-loculed; ovule 1; stigma 1, rarely 2-cleft, globose, apex obtuse or acute, beaked or brushlike, lateral or terminal. Fruit a very small, sticky nutlet, often partly enclosed in pit in rachis, sometimes distinctly curved.
Herbs , annual or perennial, erect, decumbent, or prostrate, terrestrial or epiphytic, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glandular-dotted. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, glabrous or pubescent, or glandular. Leaf blade conspicuously or inconspicuously veined, lateral veins ascending-arching, or inconspicuous, tertiary veins apparently absent or very faint. Spikes terminal, terminal and axillary, or opposite leaves, densely to loosely flowered. Flowers sessile, borne on surface or in pitlike depressions of rachis, floral bracts glabrous or glandular-dotted; stamens 2, attached at base of ovary; stigma 1, sometimes cleft. Fruits sessile or stipitate, globose, ovoid, oblong, or pyriform, surface warty, minutely reticulate, or faintly striate, ± viscid; beak mammiform or elongate, straight, bent, or hooked.
Prostrate, assurgent or erect, succulent, terrestrial or epiphytic herbs; leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, simple, entire, sometimes peltate, glabrous or more or less hairy, commonly yellow-or black-glandular-dotted, sessile or petiolate, venation palmate, pinnate, or plinerved with the nerves coalescing toward the base; spikes terminal, axillary, or leaf-opposed, slender, sometimes up to 15 cm. or more long; flowers sessile, in the axils of more or less round, peltate bracts, perfect, perianth none, stamens 2, ovary 1, with obliquely scutelliform, rounded-mammi-form, somewhat stylose, or rostrate beak; stigma apical or subapical; fruit very small, globose, ellipsoidal, or subcylindrical, one-seeded, drupe-like, with a thin pericarp and somewhat hardened endocarp, commonly verrucose and viscid.
Perennial herbs, terrestrial, epiphytic or lithophytic, bisexual. Indumentum present or often absent; hairs simple. Stems not thickened at nodes (in Australia). Leaves alternate, opposite or whorled, exstipulate, petiolate, usually palmately 3-or 5-veined, succulent to membranous. Spikes terminal, axillary, leaf-opposed or extra-axillary, terete, usually simple. Flowers sessile. Stamens 2. Ovary sessile or contracted at base and substipitate; apex obtuse or rostrate. Stigma simple, capitate. Fruit a drupe, sessile or shortly stipitate, ovoid, obovoid or turbinate, exserted, not fleshy, often mucilaginous.
Fls minute, perfect, in slender bracted spikes; per. 0; stamens 2, subsessile, anther-cells confluent. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; stigma penicillate; ovule solitary, erect. Fr. minute, indehiscent. Annual to perennial us. succulent herbs; lvs alt., opp., or whorled, exstipulate. Over 500 spp., mostly tropical and subtropical.
Leaves alternate, opposite or verticillate, simple, entire, sometimes peltate, thin to ± fleshy, often glandular-punctate, glabrous or hairy, stipules absent.
Stamens 2, borne at the base of the ovary, soon deciduous; filaments short, very thin; anthers transversely oblong or subglobose, dorsifixed.
Annual or perennial often succulent herbs, terrestrial epiphytic or growing on rocks; stems erect or ascending, sometimes climbing.
Ovary globose or ellipsoid, glabrous; stigma 1(2), sessile or style developed, simple, sometimes sunken, smooth or penicillate.
Flowers hermaphrodite, numerous, sessile, sometimes sunk in depressions in the rhachis, usually white cream or green.
Inflorescences of solitary or crowded spikes, terminal, leaf-opposed or axillary.
Seed 1, testa membranous or coriaceous; endosperm farinaceous.
Fruit a sessile or stipitate drupe; pericarp thin.
