Annual or perennial herbs or undershrubs. Leaves ovate, rhomboid, obovoid,
retuse or lanceolate, entire, rarely lobed or divided, palmi- or penninerved. Flowers
axillary, solitary or in clusters by development of accessory buds or in racemes or panicles
by reduction of upper leaves. Epicalyx absent. Calyx mostly campanulate, 5-lobed.
Corolla yellow or yellowish white, rotate, connate at base and adnate to the staminal
column. Staminal column shorter than petals, hairy or glabrous. Carpels 5 -
14, uniovulate; styles as many as carpels; stigmas capitate. Schizocarps globular to oblate, depressed; mericarps more or less trigonous, muticous or with two beaks or biaristate at
apex, outer surface smooth or prominently reticulate, indehiscent or dehiscent along
mid-dorsal line, rarely along inner margin or by withering of lateral or basal walls. Seeds
ovoid-oblong to reniform, glabrous or hairy.
Tropics and subtropics of the World, ca 200 species; 12 in India.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1a. Mericarps 5
2
b. Mericarps 6 -
12
8
2a. Mericarps smooth, mucronate; seeds dispersed by withering of wall; leaves palminerved
3
b. Mericarps with prominent reticulation, awned; seeds dispersed by apical dehiscence; leaves
penninerved
6
3a. Erect herbs or undershrubs; flowers in axillary or terminal racemes or panicles
4
b. Prostrate or diffuse herbs; flowers usually solitary or in few -flowered racemes
5
4a. Plants viscid with glandular hairs; staminal column glabrous
