Annual or perennial herbs. Stems usually ± 4-ridged or winged. Leaves well-developed or scale-like. Flowers 4-5-merous, terminal, solitary or in cymes, usually yellow. Calyx 4-5-lobed, ± free or with a short tube; lobes keeled or winged. Corolla tube with 4-5(-6) lobes; lobes without glandular nectaries within. Ovary ovoid or almost spherical, 2-locular. Stigma capitate or clavate, ± 2-lobed. Capsule
septicidally 2-valved. Seeds very many, minute. Worldwide: 60 species, Africa to India, Australia and New Zealand Zambia: 17 taxa. |
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