Mercurialis L.

Herbs, annual or perennial, dioecious rarely monoecious, with watery sap. Leaves opposite, dentate, penninerved, bistipulate. Flowers: in interrupted spikes. Male flowers: sessile to subsessile, clustered on spikes; calyx 3-partite with obtuse to acute lobes; petals and disc absent; stamens 8 - 12 (- 20), free; anthers 2-loculed, ovoid, divaricate, sub-pendulous, longitudinally dehiscing; pistillode absent. Female flowers: solitary in axils of leaves; calyxlobes 3, imbricate, enlarging on maturity in fruits; disc absent or rarely present, hypogynous, glandular; ovary 2-locular; styles 2, connate at base, free and divaricate above, papillose inside. Fruits capsular, strongly 2-lobed, 2-valved, 2-seeded; endocarp crustaceous; seeds ovoid, globose, carunculate; endosperm thick; cotyledons broad, flat.

Eurasian, 8 species; one in India.

List of Lower Taxa