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Herbs, annual or perennial, subshrubs, or low shrubs [rarely dioecious], unarmed. Raphides present. Leaves opposite, sometimes borne on very short axillary stems and these plus long-stem leaves appearing whorled or fascicled, without domatia; stipules persistent, fused to petiole bases or leaves, sheath truncate to broadly rounded or broadly triangular, usually thinly textured, with (1 or)2-11 bristles to multi-fimbriate, bristles occasionally glandular at apex. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, capitate or glomerulate, several to many flowered, sessile, bracteate, often partially enclosed in an expanded stipule sheath; bracts usually filiform-laciniate or stipuliform. Flowers sessile or subsessile, bisexual, monomorphic [or rarely distylous or unisexual]. Calyx limb deeply to completely 2-or 4[-8]-lobed, lobes sometimes unequal in pairs. Corolla white sometimes flushed with blue or pink [to sometimes pink, red, blue, or violet], salverform to funnelform, inside variously glabrous throughout, pubescent in throat or throughout, or usually with a ring of pubescence at stamen insertion; lobes 4, valvate in bud [and infrequently with abaxial horns or appendages]. Stamens 4, inserted in corolla throat to near base of tube, included or exserted; filaments short or developed; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 in each cell, axile near middle of septum; stigma capitate or 2-lobed with lobes short to linear, included or exserted. Fruit capsular, ellipsoid to subglobose, septicidally then loculicidally dehiscent with valves remaining joined at base [or sometimes separating completely or remaining connected at apex or partially schizocarpous with 1 valve loculicidal and 1 valve indehiscent], papery to thickly textured, with calyx limb persistent; seeds medium-sized, ellipsoid to subglobose, with ventral (i.e., adaxial) groove, with testa thin, smooth to variously ornamented including minutely pitted to rugose, ruminate, and/or reticulate; endosperm corneous or fleshy; cotyledons leaflike; hypocotyl terete, basiscopic.
Flowers mostly small or occasionally medium-sized, hermaphrodite, not heterostylous (except in sect. Galianthe (Griseb.) K. Schum. which does not occur in Africa), sessile, mostly in axillary ± globose often very many-flowered clusters or less often in terminal capitula, supported by 1-2(more) pairs of leaves forming bracts, or 1-few in the axils (some extra-African species have extensive terminal inflorescences); sometimes the axillary nodal clusters run together to form a spike-like inflorescence the leaf pairs forming scattered or congested bracts; the flowers in the globose clusters are frequently intermixed with numerous ± scarious filiform bracteoles.
numerous slender appendages. Inflorescences axillary, sessile, the flowers glo-merulate; bracts setaceous and filiform, subtending the inflorescences. Flowers small, the calycine cup scarcely measurable, the calycine lobes 4; corolla white or lavender, hypocrateriform to infundibuliform, the lobes 4, valvate; stamens 4, affixed variously in the corolla tube; stigmas connate or distinct. Fruits dry, the mericarps 2, unequal, each with a single seed, the smaller mericarp opening, the larger remaining closed; calyx persistent; seeds oblong.
Fruit mostly a 2-valved capsule dehiscing from the apex downwards with the septum disappearing (in sect. Borreria (G.F.W. Mey.) Verdc.) or sometimes 2-coccous, one dehiscent but the other remaining ± closed (sect. Spermacoce) or in a few species (sect Arbulocarpus (Tennant) Verdc.) the capsule splitting from the base upwards but valves remaining attached by the calyx limb which is not split across, the whole falling off like a lid, a persistent septum being left behind.
Fls 4-merous; sep ± connate at base, persistent; cor funnelform; stamens and style short, deeply included; ovary bilocular, with a single axile ovule in each locule; fr capsular, septicidal, one half retaining the septum and closed, the other half separating from the septum; herbs with dissected stipular sheaths and small white fls sessile or nearly so in axillary glomerules. 100, New World, mainly warm.
Corolla funnel-shaped or salver-shaped, the tube sometimes very slender, sometimes with a ring of hairs inside towards base; throat glabrous to hairy; lobes (3)4, mostly spreading, valvate.
Ovary 2-locular, the amphitropous ovules solitary in each locule, attached to the middle of the septum; style filiform, mostly exserted; stigma capitellate or with 2 short lobes.
Leaves opposite or falsely whorled, sessile or petiolate, the petioles often united with the stipule sheath, which is mostly divided into 1-many ± filiform fimbriae.
Herbs, annual or perennial, the stems angled. Leaves linear or narrowly lan-ceolate; petioles short; stipules united to the petioles, the sheath with few to
Calyx tube obovoid, turbinate or obconic; lobes 2–4(8), mostly triangular, oblong or lanceolate, often ± persistent, sometimes with intermediate denticles.
Seeds oblong, ellipsoid or ovoid, usually shining brown with a thin often clearly reticulate testa, ventrally grooved; albumen horny or fleshy.
Annual or perennial herbs or small subshrubs, with glabrous, pubescent, hispid or scabrid very often 4-angled prostrate to erect stems.
Stamens 4, the filaments inserted in the tube or at the throat, the linear to oblong anthers included or mostly exserted.
