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Herbs perennial or less commonly annual, rarely shrubs, rarely dioecious. Roots usually stout (taproots), or sometimes plants rhizomatous. Stems erect, rarely ascending to prostrate, branched, not hollow or sulcate. Leaves simple, often dimorphic, fugacious or persisting, basal and cauline, alternate, margin entire or undulate; ocrea tubular, membranous, margin entire. Inflorescence usually terminal, sometimes terminal and axillary, racemose or paniculate. Pedicel articulate (the functional pedicel consists of the true pedicel and, below the joint, the narrowed united basal parts of the outer tepals (pseudopedicel)). Flowers bisexual or unisexual (unisexual in dioecious, and rarely in polygamo-monoecious plants). Perianth persistent, tepals 6, becoming enlarged and often hardened in fruit; valve (fruiting inner tepal) margin entire, erose, denticulate, or variously dentate, midvein often transformed into tubercles (tuberculate callosities). Stamens 6. Styles 3, elongate; stigmas penicillate. Achenes trigonous, elliptic to ovate.
Perennial or sometimes annual herbs, occasionally climbing, rarely shrubby; roots often thick. Lvs radical or cauline, very variable, mostly longer than wide, commonly bullate and undulate, sometimes hastate; ochreae ± tubular. Fls in simple or branched racemes or spikes, often strongly protandrous, often whorled, green, often turning reddish later, mostly ☿, sometimes unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious). Pedicels jointed, usually deflexed at fruiting. Perianth segments 6, ± free; outer 3 remaining small and thin and often reflexing; inner 3 (fr. valves) enlarging in fr., often becoming hard, prominently veined, not keeled, sometimes with marginal teeth, sometimes with dorsal tubercles, these forming enlarged corky areas on the midrib. Stamens 6, in 2 whorls. Styles 3, very short; stigmas usually strongly lobed and mostly penicillate. Fr. a trigonous nut, with surrounding perianth segments sometimes spiny.
Flowers perfect or unisexual, pedicellate, few to many in verticillate ochreolate fascicles. Perianth of 6 tepals, the outer 3 usually smaller and spreading or reflexed, the inner 3 cordate, entire or lacerate, frequently with an abaxial tubercle, usually accrescent and closely investing the achene. Stamens 6, discrete, the filaments usually shorter than the anthers, the anthers mostly 2-locular and loculicidal. Ovary trigonous with 3 spreading to reflexed filiform styles capped by fimbrillate peltate stigmata. Achene triquetrous, smooth and lustrous or rough and dull, usually included. Glabrous usually perennial herbs, occasionally becoming quite tall and shrubby. Leaves alternate, entire or rarely dentate, occasionally tending to form rosettes, the ochreae hyaline and rather tardily deciduous.
Fls perfect or unisexual; tep 3 ± 3, the outer usually narrower at anthesis; stamens 6, on short filaments; ovary trigonous; styles 3, spreading or deflexed over the angles of the ovary, each with a branched, stellate stigma; achene trigonous, closely invested by the accrescent inner tep; our spp. herbs, usually coarse; lvs subtended by sheathing stipules; fls small, greenish or suffused with red, in small verticils aggregated into a compound infl. At maturity the inner tep are called valves; often the midrib of a valve enlarges into an evident protuberance called a grain or tubercle. Our spp. all fl in summer and fr in late summer and fall. 200, widespread.
Hermaphrodite or dioecious, usually glabrous herbs, often stout. Bracteoles 1 or 0. Tepals 6, in two series of 3; the outer small, non-accrescent; the inner accrescent, erect, circular, ovate or triangular with the margin entire, wavy or toothed, sometimes winged, and the midrib sometimes swollen to produce a wart-like tubercle. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the perianth. Nuts trigonous, enclosed within the inner tepals. Styles 3; stigmas penicillate or fimbriate.
Fls us. perfect, in clusters on simple or branched racemes or spikes. Outer 3 tepals small, thin; inner 3 enlarging and hardening in fr., with or without tubercles on midribs. Stamens 6, basifixed. Fr. triquetrous or trigonous, invested by persistent hardened per. Annual to perennial herbs, us. with deeply descending stout taproot; lvs alt., stipules ochreate. Subcosmopolitan genus with some 150 spp., the N.Z. pair endemic.
Perianth 6-merous, in 2 whorls of 3; outer perianth segments small and thin; inner segments accrescent, becoming enlarged and usually hardened in fruit, ovate or triangular, often reticulate-veined, with the margin entire, wavy or toothed, with or without dorsal tubercles on the midrib near the base.
Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, more rarely shrubs, climbing or not, usually with long stout taproots, sometimes rhizomatous.
Nut sharply trigonous, with a woody pericarp, surrounded by the inner accrescent perianth segments.
Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, pedicellate, arranged in whorls borne in racemes or panicles.
Ovary trigonous; styles 3; stigmas 3, penicillate or fimbriate.
Stamens 6, in 2 whorls of 3; anthers basifixed.
Ocrea membranous, entire or lacerate.
Leaves alternate.
