Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Aromatic annual or perennial herbs with multicellular mucilage-producing hairs; leaves opposite, sometimes the upper alternate; stipules 0.

Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, single in the axils of the upper leaves, sometimes subtended by a pair of bracteoles; sepals 5, free except at the very base; corolla tubular, with 5 forward-directed lobes, the lowest often longer than the other 4; stamens 4, in pairs of unequal length, with a tiny staminode, the anthers gland-tipped, 2-celled, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; ovary (in Aust.) superior, comprising 2-4 carpels; each sometimes further divided by a false septum producing 4, 6 or 8 1- to many-ovulate cells with axile or basal placentation; style terminal, simple, with a 2-4-lobed stigma.

Fruit a 4-angled capsule or hard, indehiscent and spinose.

Distribution:  About 12 genera and 50 species, in much of Africa, Madagascar, India and Malesia, mainly in dry or coastal regions; 1 genus native to Australia, another introduced. (O. Stapf (1895) Pflanzenfam. edn 1, IV, 36:253-265; C. A. Backer (1951) Fl. Males. I, 4:216-221).

Biology: No text

Author: Prepared by W. R. Barker