ABSTRACT
The family comprises herbaceous plants, which can be annual, biennial, or perennial, with opposite, simple, entire leaves, usually without stipules. The flowers are arranged in dichasial cymose inflorescences and are actinomorphic, bisexual (rarely unisexual), with a double floral envelope, usually 4–5-merous, gamosepalous, and dialypetalous (sometimes the corolla is completely reduced). The androecium has twice the number of stamens compared to the floral envelope elements, while the gynoecium is superior, unilocular, uni- or pluriovulate, septate, and arranged on an extension of the axis called the gynophore, which becomes a carpophore at maturity. The fruit is a dehiscent capsule, opening through valves or teeth, rarely being a berry or achene, with campylotropous ovules. The seeds are round, pear-shaped, or reniform, with a visible funiculus, attached to a central placenta. The embryo is bent, rarely straight, with narrow cotyledons.1– 3
