Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, often with trailing or twining stems, or leafless parasites; leaves alternate, exstipulate.

Inflorescence axillary, rarely terminal, cymose or reduced to a single flower; flowers regular, 5- rarely 4- or 6-merous, bisexual; sepals free or rarely united; corolla sympetalous, funnel-shaped or campanulate, occasionally rotate or salver-shaped; stamens adnate to the base of the corolla, alternating with the corolla lobes, with the filaments usually flattened and dilated downwards; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; ovary superior, mostly 2-celled, occasionally with 1, 3 or 4 cells, subtended by a disk; ovules 2, rarely 1 in each cell; styles 1 or 2, stigmas variously shaped.

Fruit capsular.

Distribution:  About 55 genera and 1,650 species mainly tropical and subtropical.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The highly modified parasitic species of Cuscuta are sometimes placed in a separate family, the Cuscutaceae.

Key to Genera:

1. Yellowish leafless parasitic twiners	CUSCUTA 5.
1. Green leafy plants
2. Ovary distinctly 2-lobed; styles 2, inserted between the lobes	DICHONDRA 6.
2. Ovary entire; style or styles terminal
3. Sepals connate, with lobes shorter than the tube	WILSONIA 9.
3. Sepals free
4. Styles 2, free or united for up to half their length; hairs 2-branched
5. Styles united at the base	BONAMIA 1.
5. Styles free
6. Styles forked, with linear stigmas	EVOLVULUS 7.
6. Styles entire, with capitate stigmas	CRESSA 4.
4. Style 1, entire; hairs otherwise
7. Stigma entire, capitate or biglobular	IPOMOEA 8.
7. Stigmatic lobes 2, linear to oblong
8. Bractcoles large, enclosing the calyx	CALYSTEGIA 2.
8. Bractcoles small, distant from the calyx	CONVOLVULUS 3.

Author: Prepared by R. W. Johnson