General description:- Herbs, more rarely small shrubs.
Leaves:- Usually opposite with alternate pairs are at right angles to each other
(decussate), more rarely alternate or arranged in whorls (verticillate), simple, entire,
with or without thin and dry (scarious) stipules.
Flowers:- Radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), usually hermaphrodite, often with
bracts on both sides of the main axis (bracteate dichasia) Sepals 4 or 5, free, or
fused and often united by thin and dry (scarious) strips of tissue (commissures)
alternating with the calyx-teeth. Petals (0-)4 or 5, free. Stamens usually 8-10, in two
whorls, the inner whorl opposite the sepals and he outer whorl opposite the petals
(obdiplostemonous). Ovary in the centre and above the other flower parts (superior),
one-celled (unilocular) at least above, with 1 to numerous campylotropous (ovule
with embryo-sac curved and at right angles to its stalk) ovules on a basal or free-
central placenta; stigmas (1)2-5.
Fruit:- Usually a capsule, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscing), with teeth
equalling the styles in number or twice as many more.
Genus: AGROSTEMMA
General description:- Erect annuals.
Flowers:- Petals contorted in bud. Epicalyx absent. Calyx 10-veined, with 5 long
teeth. Limb of petal more or less distinct from claw; coronal scales present.
Stamens 10, rarely up to 20; styles 5, alternating with calyx-teeth;
Fruit:- A capsule, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscing) with (usually) 5
teeth. The prolongation of the receptacle or floral axis bearing the carpels
(carpophore) is absent. Seeds without a tuft of hairs at scar (hilum) left on the
surface of a seed when it becomes detached from the ovary.
key features:-
1) Calyx-teeth foliaceous.
Comments:-
Far less widespread now because of modern farming practices and herbicides. The
seeds are poisonous.
Genus: ARENARIA
Including; Subgen. ARENARIA
General description:- Annual, biennial or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- Opposite, entire, very variable in shape from orbicular to subulate.
Flowers:- Usually in few-flowered cymes, sometimes solitary, (4)5-petalled
(merous). Sepals free; petals usually entire, white (rarely pink or purple); stamens
(8-)10; styles (2)3(-5).
Fruit:- Capsule conical to cylindrical, splitting open to release the seeds
(dehiscing); with twice as many teeth as styles; teeth narrow, acute. Seeds
several, kidney-shaped (reniform) (rarely globose), usually dark brown, smooth or
tuberculate.
Key features:-
1) Basal leaves linear-spatula-shaped.
2) Capsule with bifid teeth.
3) Petals distinctly notched at the apex (emarginate) (to less than ?) or entire.
4) Seeds without strophiole.
Subgen. ARENARIA
General description:- Annuals to perennials, of various habit.
Leaves:- less than 30 mm.
Flower:- Styles 3(-5). Capsule more or less ovoid.
Genus: BOLANTHUS
General description:- Perennials; rather woody at the base.
Flowers:- Inflorescence dichasial, paniculate to subcapitate; bracts leafy. Epicalyx
absent. Calyx with 5 projecting ribs and scarious commissures. Petals with long,
linear claw and small, patent limb; coronal scales absent; claw delicately winged;
stamens 10; styles 2, stigmatose all along their inner side.
Fruits:- Capsule oblong-ovoid, dehiscing with 4 teeth; carpophore short. Seeds
comma-shaped, with lateral hilum; embryo hook-shaped, with projecting radicle.
Genus: BUFONIA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, rarely biennial.
Stems:- Usually branched from base; flowering stems erect.
Leaves:- Linear; bristly-hairy (setaceous), the hairs lying close to the surface
(appressed), those of the flowering stems shorter than internodes.
Flowers:- Inflorescence a cymose panicle; pedicels short; flowers self-pollinated.
Sepals 4, the 2 outer being shorter, lanceolate, with a hyaline margin; petals 4,
equalling or shorter than sepals, white; stamens 2-8; styles 2.
Fruit:- Capsule included, dehiscing with 2 teeth. Seeds 1 or 2, oblong,
compressed, tuberculate.
Key features:-
1) Basal leaves setaceous.
2) Capsule with entire teeth.
All species occur in dry, sandy or rocky habitats.
Genus: CERASTIUM
General description:- Herbs, sometimes slightly woody at the base, usually hairy.
Flowers:- Usually in cymose inflorescences, sometimes solitary. Sepals free.
Petals white, usually bifid or distinctly notched at the apex (emarginate),
sometimes absent; stamens 5-10, rarely fewer; nectaries present; styles usually 5,
opposite the sepals, sometimes 3, 4 or 6.
Fruit:- A cylindrical or oblong capsule, often more or less curved, dehiscing with
twice as many teeth as styles. Seeds numerous, spherical or reniform.
Key features:-
1) Petals entire, (4)5, distinctly bifid. to c. 1/3. or emarginate.
2) Annuals or perennials, usually hairy.
3) Styles 4 or 5 on at least some flowers.
Genus: CORRIGIOLA
General description:- Glabrous herbs.
Stems:- More or less decumbent.
Leaves:- Alternate.
Flowers:- Inflorescence compound, cymose; flowers numerous, small, more or
less aggregated, slightly perigynous. Sepals, petals and stamens 5; stigmas 3.
Fruit:- A trigonous achene enclosed in the persistent calyx.
Genus: DIANTHUS
Including: Subgen. ARMERIASTRUM, Subgen. DIANTHUS
General description:- Perennial herbs or small shrubs, more rarely annuals or
biennials.
Leaves :- Entire, usually linear, parallel-veined, often covered with a waxy bloom
(glaucous).
Stems:- Flowering stems often swollen and brittle at the nodes.
Flowers:- Usually conspicuous, solitary, in lax, few-flowered cymes, or in heads
surrounded by bracts. Epicalyx-scales 2 to many, usually closely pressed
(appressed) to the calyx. Calyx tubular, 5-toothed, without thin and dry (scarious)
places of joining (commissures). Petals 5, long-clawed, entire, edged with tooth-like
projections (dentate) or cut into slender lobes (laciniate), but not deeply divided at
the tip (bifid); coronal scales absent, but petals often with a tuft of hairs (bearded)
at mouth of flower.
Fruit:- Capsule dehiscing apically with 4 teeth; carpophore often present. Seeds
numerous, concave on 1 side.
Subgen. ARMERIASTRUM
General description:- Often obviously woody at base.
Flowers:- In groups or heads often surrounded by involucral bracts, rarely solitary.
Subgen. DIANTHUS
Plants:- Usually not woody at the base.
Flowers:- Solitary or in groups, usually without involucral bracts.
Genus: GYPSOPHILIA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Flowers:- Inflorescence dichasial, paniculate to capitate; bracts scarious. Epicalyx
absent. Calyx 5-veined, with scarious commissures. Petals exceeding calyx,
usually gradually narrowed into claw; coronal scales absent; claw unwinged;
stamens 10; styles 2; stigmatic surface terminal. Capsule dehiscing with 4 teeth;
carpophore absent.
Fruit:- Seeds subreniform, flattened on both sides, with lateral hilum; embryo
peripheral, with prominent radicle.
Genus: HERNIARIA
General description:- Herbs, sometimes woody at the base.
Stems:- Erect to procumbent, usually much-branched
Leaves:- Opposite (or sometimes apparently alternate), elliptical to linear; stipules
usually conspicuous, scarious.
Flowers:- Small, sometimes 4-petalled (4-merous), with the sepals, petals and
stamens slightly carried up around the ovary on a cup-shaped extension
(hypanthium) (perigynous), in axillary, rarely terminal, spherical clusters; bracts thin
and dry (scarious), usually silvery and inconspicuous. Calyx very deeply 5-lobed,
the lobes often hooded (cucullate) and with stiff bristle-like projection (awned), and
often with membranous margins; petals minute notched or bifid, short-stalked
(subsessile) or rarely on a distinct style.
Fruit:- An achene with membranous pericarp.
Key features:-
1) Leaves not aristate.
2) Plant procumbent or erect
3) Sepals not white and spongy.
Genus: HOLOSTEUM
General description:- Annual.
Flowers:- Inflorescence terminal, umbellate. Petals irregularly toothed; styles 3.
Fruit:- A cylindrical capsule. Seeds asymmetrically kidney-shaped (reniform) and
laterally expanded.
Genus: MINUARTIA
General description:- Annual, biennial or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- Opposite, entire, usually narrowly lanceolate, or awl-shaped (subulate)
bristly (setaceous).
Flowers:- Usually in few-flowered cymes, sometimes solitary, petals 4-5 ((4)5-
merous). Sepals free; petals usually entire, white (rarely pink or purple); stamens
(8-)10; styles (2)3(-5).
Fruit:- Capsule conical to cylindrical, splitting open to release the seeds
(dehiscing), with as many teeth as styles; capsule-teeth wide and obtuse.
Seeds 1 to many, kidney-shaped (reniform) (rarely globose), usually dark brown,
smooth, tuberculate or fringed by rather broad hair-like processes (fimbriate).
Key features:-
1) Plant not fleshy.
2) Seeds less than 3 mm.
3) Styles fewer than sepals.
Genus: MOENCHIA
General description:- Glabrous, usually glaucous annuals.
Leaves:- linear to oblong-lanceolate.
Flowers:- 4- or 5-merous, solitary or in few-flowered, spreading cymes; bracts
white-margined. Sepals lanceolate, acute, with broad, white, membranous margins;
petals entire or slightly notched at the apex (emarginate); stamens 4(5) or 8(10);
styles (3)4(5), opposite the sepals.
Fruit:- A straight capsule, dehiscing with twice as many short, obtuse teeth as
styles. Seeds numerous, reniform, papillose.
Key features:-
1) Glabrous, glaucous annuals.
2) Petals 4(5), entire or emarginate.
Genus: PARONYCHIA
General description:- Herbs, sometimes woody at the base,
Stems:- Erect to procumbent, usually much-branched.
Leaves:- Opposite (or sometimes apparently alternate), elliptical to linear; stipules
usually conspicuous, thin and dry (scarious).
Flowers:- Small, the sepals, petals and stamens slightly carried up around the
ovary on a cup-shaped extension of the floral axis (hypanthium) (perigynous), in
axillary, rarely terminal, spherical clusters; bracts scarious, usually silvery and
often very conspicuous and concealing the flowers. Calyx very deeply 5-lobed, the
lobes often hooded (cucullate) and with a stiff bristle-like projection (awned), often
with membranous margins; petals minute or absent; stamens 5; styles 2, or
sometimes fused but divided at the tip in two (bifid) near the apex or with a bifid
stigma (rarely conical and subentire).
Fruit:- An achene with a membranous pericarp.
Key features:-
1) Stigmas 1 or 2.
2) Bracts conspicuous/inconspicuous, longer/shorter than flowers.
3) Leaves with a bristle-like part or appendage (aristate).
4) Plant erect.
Genus: PETROHAGIA
Including Sect. PSEUDOTUNICA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Flowers:- Inflorescence in a branched racemose (paniculate) to capitate. Bracts
present or absent. Calyx 5-toothed, 5- to 15-veined with scarious commissures.
Petals 5, exceeding the calyx, with or without claw; coronal scales absent.
Stamens 10; styles 2. Capsule dehiscing with 4 teeth.
Fruit:- Seeds dorsiventrally compressed; embryo straight.
1) Calyx-tube without wings; with scarious commissures.
2) Seeds scutate, with facial hilum.
All species occur in dry, calcareous or sandy habitats.
Sect. PSEUDOTUNICA
General description:- Annuals or perennials.
Leaves:- 3-veined.
Flower:- Bracts absent. Petals not clawed. black, smooth, with thin margins.
Fruit:- Seeds, black, smooth with thin margins.
Genus: POLYCARPON
General description:- Small annuals to perennials.
Stems:- Ascending or erect, usually branched, usually rough at the angles.
Leaves:- More or less petiolate, opposite, often apparently verticillate.
Flowers:- Small, in cymose clusters with scarious bracts. Sepals 5; petals 5,
hyaline, shorter than the sepals; stamens 1-5, the filaments more or less united at
the base; style short, 3-lobed.
Fruit:- Capsule dehiscing with 3 valves almost to the base; valves twisting spirally
into tubes. Seeds several.
Key features:-
1) Sepals entire.
2) Leaves obovate or orbicular.
Genus: SAGINA
General description:- Small annual or perennial herbs.
Stems:- Flowering stems often caespitose, slender, procumbent or ascending.
Leaves:- Subulate to linear-lanceolate in slightly connate pairs.
Flowers:- 4- or 5-merous, almost globose in bud, solitary or in few-flowered cymes.
Sepals free; petals usually white, entire, often minute, sometimes 0; stamens as
many or twice as many as the sepals; styles 4 or 5, alternating with the sepals.
Fruit:- A capsule splitting to the base into 4 or 5 valves. Seeds numerous.
Comment:- This largely autogamous species is extremely variable, and all
combinations of characters involving the ciliation of the leaves and the glandular-
hairiness of the sepals and pedicels are to be found in local variants.
Genus: SAPONARIA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Flower:- Inflorescence, cyme with lateral branches on both sides of the main axis
(dichasial), paniculate to growing in heads (capitate); rarely flowers solitary.
Epicalyx absent. Calyx cylindrical or oblong, 5-toothed, 15- to 25-veined, without
scarious commissures. Petals 5, exceeding calyx, narrowed abruptly (or rarely
gradually) into a long claw; coronal scales usually present; stamens 10; styles 2,
rarely 3.
Fruit:- Capsule cylindrical to ovoid, dehiscing with 4, rarely 6, teeth. Seeds kidney-
shaped (reniform), with lateral scar left on the surface of a seed when it becomes
detached from the ovary (hilum), more or less compressed.
Genus: SCLERANTHUS
General description:- Annual, biennial or perennial herbs; stems diffusely
branched, hairy on 2 sides.
Leaves:- Connate at the base.
Flower:- Inflorescence of more or less dense terminal and axillary cymose
clusters. Sepals usually 5, inserted on the rim of the urceolate perigynous zone
(the whole being called the 'fruit' in the following account); petals absent; stamens
up to 10; styles 2.
Fruit:- An indehiscent 1(2)-seeded nutlet enclosed by the hardened wall of the
perigynous zone and the persistent sepals, which are shed with it. Seeds lenticular,
smooth.
Measurements of the ' fruit ' are from the apex of the sepal to the base of the
perigynous zone and vary little between flowering and fruiting.
Genus: SILENE
Including Sects: ATOCION, DIPTEROSPERMAE, CONOMORPHA,
BEHENANTHA, SILENE, DICHOTOMAE, SIPHONOMORPHA,
SPERGULIFOLIAE. INFLATAE, SCORPIOIDEAE
General description:- Herbs or small shrubs.
Flowers:- Epicalyx absent. Calyx with (5-)10-30(-60) veins and 5 short teeth. Petal-
limb distinct from claw. Stamens 10; styles usually 3 (sometimes 4 on same plant),
more rarely 5.
Fruit:- With or without basal septa opening by 6 (more rarely 5, 8 or 10) teeth,
twice the number of styles; carpophore present. Seeds glabrous.
Sect. ATOCION
Stems:- Erect, usually slender, not rigid, viscid above.
Flowers:- Inflorescence a dichasial or monochasial cyme. Calyx not contracted at
mouth in fruit.
Fruit:- Seeds not winged.
Sect. DIPTEROSPERMAE
Flowers:- Inflorescence of various types. Calyx not or scarcely contracted at mouth
in fruit.
Fruit:- Seeds kidney-shaped (reniform), with flat faces, the back deeply and acutely
grooved between 2 undulate wings.
Sect. CONOMORPHA
Flowers: Inflorescence of lax dichasia. Calyx 15- to 60-veined; veins usually
prominent, parallel.
Fruit:- Seeds kidney-shaped (reniform); faces plane or slightly concave, usually
striate; back wide, with shallow groove.
Sect. BEHENANTHA
Stems:- Usually glabrous and viscid above.
Flowers:- Calyx contracted at mouth in fruit.
Sect. SILENE
Flowers:- Inflorescence of monochasial cymes. Calyx contracted at mouth in fruit.
Fruit:- Carpophore pubescent. Seeds less than 1 mm, kidney-shaped (reniform),
not winged.
Sect. DICHOTOMAE
Stems erect, pubescent.
Flowers:- Inflorescence branched, composed of raceme-like monochasial cymes.
Calyx contracted at mouth in fruit, with prominent simple veins.
Fruit:- Seeds kidney-shaped (reniform), with plane or slightly concave faces, with
small, wart-like projections (tuberculate), and bluntly tuberculate back.
Sect. SIPHONOMORPHA
General description:- Perennials with woody stock, more rarely biennials.
Leaves:- Lower lanceolate to spatula-shaped.
Flowers:- Inflorescence paniculate, with opposite, viscid branches bearing (1-)3- to
7-flowered dichasia; flowers usually large, erect or inclined when in full bloom
(anthesis). Filaments glabrous.
Fruit:- Seeds with plane face and usually shallowly grooved back.
Sect. SCORPIOIDEAE
General description:- Annuals, rarely perennials.
Flowers:- Calyx not contracted at mouth in fruit; veins usually anastomosing.
Fruits:- Seeds of various types, but never winged.
Sect. SPERGULIFOLIAE
General description:- Perennials with more or less woody stock and ovate.
Leaves:- Lanceolate or linear.
Flowers:- Inflorescence few-flowered or flowers solitary; flowers usually large.
Fruit:- Carpophore well-developed.
Sect. INFLATAE
Flowers:- Solitary or in cymes with lateral branches on both sides of the main axis
(dichasia), sometimes many-flowered. Calyx 10- or 20-veined, with conspicuous
mesh-like veins (reticulate venation), often markedly inflated. Petals with
overlapping in bud (imbricate aestivation).
Genus: SPERGULA Including; Group MEDIA
General description:- Annuals (rarely perennials);
Stems:- Ascending, often decumbent and much-branched at the base.
Leaves:- Linear, obtuse, decussate; stipules scarious, not united to surround the
node; leaf-fascicles (short, leafy, lateral branches) borne on both sides at each
node.
Flowers:- Perianth 5-merous; sepals free, green, with scarious margins; petals
white, entire; stamens 5-10; styles 3 or 5.
Fruit:- Capsule ovoid to subglobose, dehiscing with 3 or 5 valves. Seeds often
winged.
S. MEDIA Group
Stems:- Circular in cross section (terete).
Leaves:- At least the lower leaves petiolate.
Flowers:- Petals bifid almost to the base.
Key features:-
1) At least the lower leaves distinctly petiolate; leaves never linear-lanceolate or
linear.
2) Petals equalling or slightly exceeding sepals.
3) Stems terete; hairy all round.
4) Bracts herbaceous.
Genus: TELEPHIUM
General description:- Procumbent perennials, woody at the base.
Flowers:- In terminal cymes, 5-merous. Styles 3(4), free to the base; ovary septate
below, with many ovules.
Fruit:- Capsule usually obtusely 3-angled (trigonous), dehiscing with 3(4) valves.
Key fearures:-
1) Sepals 3-7 mm.
2) Fruit a capsule.
Genus: VACCARIA
Flowers:- Epicalyx absent. Calyx-tube inflated below, whitish, with 5 green wings
at the angles, without scarious commissures. Petals 5, long-clawed; coronal scales
absent; ovary 1-celled (unilocular) (almost 2-locular at the base); styles 2.
Fruit:- Capsule ovoid, with thick, papery exocarp dehiscing with 4 teeth, and with
thinner endocarp dehiscing irregularly.
Key features:-
1) Calyx-tube without commissural veins, with 5 wings.
2) Styles 2 or 3.
Genus: VELEZIA
General description:- Annuals with rigid, dichotomously branched stems.
Flowers:- Shortly pedicellate, solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3 at the nodes. Epicalyx
absent. Calyx narrowly tubular, 5-toothed, (5-)15-veined, without scarious
commissures. Petals 5, with long claw and small limb; coronal scales small or
absent; stamens 5 or 10; styles 2.
Fruit:- Capsule cylindrical, very narrow, dehiscing with 4 teeth; carpophore absent.
Seeds few, scutate with facial hilum, usually with projecting radicle.
Key features:-
1) Seeds scutate, with facial hilum.