Dontostemon Andrz. ex Ledeb., nom. cons.

Herbs, annual, caespitose or subprostrate, branched, with simple or branched glandular hairs. Leaves linear or spathulate, sinuate-toothed, pinnatifid or entire; lower stalked; upper sessile or subsessile. Racemes ebracteate. Flowers white to lilac; pedicels flexuous in fruit, glandular. Sepals erect, slightly saccate at base. Petals spathulate, nearly twice as long as sepals. Stamens 6; filaments often dentate-appendaged; anthers short, blunt. Lateral nectar glands present in pairs. Ovary cylindrical or linear, many-ovuled; style, short with broad depressed capitate stigma. Fruits linear to cylindrical, bilocular, dehiscent. Seeds uniseriate.

Mostly in C. Asia; about 10 species, 2 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves narrowly spathulatre or linear; filaments not dentate

1. Dontostemon glandulosus

b. Leaves pectinate; filaments dentate

2. Dontostemon pectinatus

List of Lower Taxa