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Herbs or rarely low shrubs, glabrous; stems usually branched; roots fibrous. Leaves subsessile, the blades with the costa usually prominent above and below, the margin ciliate, the lateral veins sharply ascending; stipules persistent, ciliate. Inflorescences with the bostryces either axillary and fasciculate or terminal and paniculate, rarely solitary. Flowers pedicellate; sepals 5, quincuncial, subequal, expanded at anthesis, appressed and persistent in the fruit; petals, 5, imbricate in the bud, deciduous; segments of the exterior corona present or absent, usually filamentous, shorter than the interior corona, disposed in 1-3 continuous whorls, or fasciculate and opposite the stamens, persistent in the fruit; segments of the interior corona 5, free, petaloid; stamens 5, the filaments often longer than the anthers; ovary flask-shaped, 3-carpellate, the placentae parietal, the ovules oo, the style longer than the ovary, occasionally persistent in the unopened fruit. Capsules smooth, acute, the seeds round, reticulate, not winged.
Shrubs, rarely small trees or herbs, glabrous. Stipules 2, lacerate; leaf blade simple, margin frequently glandular serrate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, rarely 1-2-flowered. Sepals (4 or)5, margins sometimes with glandular hairs. Petals (4 or)5, contorted. Stamens 5, persistent; anthers longitudinally dehiscent or more rarely poricidal; staminodes in 1-3 whorls, spatulate to petaloid, sometimes fused in a tube. Ovary entire, (2 or)3-carpellate, 1-locular; ovules many, on parietal to basal placentas; style inserted at apex of ovary, persistent; stigma punctiform. Fruit a septicidal capsule with many small, alveolate seeds. Endosperm copious; embryo straight.
Androecium of (2) 3 whorls; outer staminodes ? in a continuous ring or in 5 antisepalous groups or individuals, short, filiform and capitate or narrowly petaloid or sometimes absent; inner staminodes 5, antipetalous, petaloid, free, forming a pseudo-corona; stamens 5, antisepalous, free, with anthers dehiscing longitudinally and short filaments.
Inflorescence paniculate to racemose and terminal or reduced to solitary flowers in the axils of foliage leaves; pedicels articulated at or above the base.
Leaves petiolate to sessile; lamina with margin serrate, incrassate; stipules with laciniate margins, longitudinally striate, free, persistent.
Ovary with 3 parietal placentas (or axile at the base), each placenta bearing ? ovules in two rows; style simple, slender; stigma not enlarged.
Seeds ?, small, with punctate testa and abundant endosperm; embryo straight, about half as long as the seed, isocotylous.
Sepals 5, quincuncial in bud, green with pale margin, persistent, not enlarging or changing colour in fruit.
Shrubs, shrublets or perennial to annual herbs, completely glabrous.
Petals 5, white to pink, not unguiculate, deciduous.
Fruit a capsule with 3 septicidal valves.
