Herbaceous plants, sometimes with scaly rhizomes, bulbs, bulbils or stolons, or woody perennials, shrubs, lianas or trees. Leaves digitately or pinnately 3-foliolate, imparipinnate or paripinnate; basal ones alternate, pinnate or paripinnate, subopposite; petioles articulate at base; stipules sometimes present; petiolules articulate. Inflorescence basal, axillary, cymose, rarely racemose, 1-to many-flowered, bracteate and bracteolate. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous; pedicels articulate. Sepals imbricate, free or connate atbase,sometimeswith apical calli (Oxalis), persistent. Petals contorted, free, usually cohesive above base, glabrous or sometimes minutely papillose or pilose inside. Stamens 10, obdiplostemonous, connate at base into an annulus, persistent, short ones sometimes with a basal gland near insertion of petals, long ones at times with a dorsal tooth (Oxalis); anthers dorsifixed or versatile, 2-locular, dehiscing extrorsely by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 5-locular; ovules 1-several per locule in 1 - 2 rows; styles 5, terminal, persistent, free. Fruits capsular, 5-locular, dry, rarely fleshy and indehiscent; seeds usually arillate.
Temperate and tropical India, Malesia, S. America, S. Africa and Madagascar; 6 genera and ca 850 species, 2 genera and 20 species in India.
Literature. VELDKAMP, J.F.(1976). In: STEENIS, Fl. Males. ser. 1.7(1): 151 - 178.
Temperate and tropical India, Malesia, S. America, S. Africa and Madagascar; 6 genera and ca 850 species, 2 genera and 20 species in India.
Literature. VELDKAMP, J.F.(1976). In: STEENIS, Fl. Males. ser. 1.7(1): 151 - 178.
KEY TO THE GENERA
| 1a. Leaflets digitate; capsules with valves remaining attached to central axis | 2. Oxalis |
| b. Leaflets pinnate; capsules dehiscing into a 5-rayed star without leaving a central axis | 1. Biophytum |
