Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Herbs or shrubs with alternate simple leaves and membranous stipules forming a sheath round the branch.

Flowers small, regular, bisexual or unisexual, usually in the axils of leaves; perianth herbaceous, sometimes coloured, of 5 or 6 imbricate segments or lobes; stamens 4-8, inserted at the base of the perianth or at the summit of an adnate hypogynous disk; ovary superior, 1-celled, with 1 orthotropous erect ovule; styles 2 or 3, sometimes united near the base and then appearing as 2 or 3 style-branches.

Fruit a small angular seed-like nut enclosed in the persistent perianth; seed 1, erect, albuminous; testa membranous; radicle superior.

Distribution:  About 40 genera and 800 species; cosmopolitan, but mainly temperate.

Biology: No text

Key to Genera:

1. Perianth-segments or lobes 6, unequal
2. Three outer segments small, 3 inner ones large	RUMEX 4.
2. Three outer lobes spiny, 3 inner ones smaller	EMEX 1.
1. Perianth-segments or lobes 5, almost equal
3. Flowers mostly bisexual	POLYGONUM 3.
3. Flowers unisexual	MUEHLENBECKIA 2.

Author: Prepared by K. Chorney