Annual or perennial herbs, shrubs or rarely trees; branches usually articulate or
swollen at nodes. Leaves opposite or alternate (by suppression) or fasciculate, pinnate,
rarely simple, entire, petiolate to subsessile; stipules free, foliaceous, sometimes fleshy
or spinescent, rarely deciduous. Flowers solitary or in cymes, usually bisexual, regular
or rarely irregular, hypogynous. Sepals usually 5, free or rarely connate at base,
imbricate or valvate. Petals usually 5, free, often clawed, imbricate or convolute, rarely
absent. Disk convex or concave, rarely annular or indistinct. Stamens in 1 - 3 whorls of
5 each, free, outermost whorl usually opposite petals and occasionally adnate at base;
filaments appendaged at base or naked; anthers nearly basifixed to versatile, longitudinally dehiscent, introrse. Ovary sessile or rarely shortly stipitate, angled or winged, (2-)
6 - 10(-12)-locular; placentation axile; style simple, angular or furrowed, rarely 5 and
free; stigma simple, capitate or lobed. Fruits capsular or schizocarpic, rarely drupa-ceous or baccate; seeds 1-many in each locule; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons
flat.
Widely distributed, but mainly in tropical and warm regions of both hemispheres
With 26 genera and ca 250 species; 8 genera, 18 species and 4 varieties in India. One
species viz. Quaicum officinale L., a native of America, is cultivated as an ornamental.
KEY TO THE GENERA
1a. Flowers solitary; fruits capsular or achizocarpic
