General description:- Herbs or dwarf shrubs.

Leaves:- Opposite, entire, often ericoid; stipules absent.

Flowers:- Usually hermaphrodite. Sepals 4-6, connate for more than half their length. Petals 4-6, clawed, with a scale-like appendage on the claw. Stamens usually 6, in 2 whorls. Ovary superior, fertile only in the lower half, 1-locular; placentation parietal; ovules numerous.

Fruit:- Capsule loculicidal. Seeds endospermous.

FRANKENIA

General description:- Annual or perennial.

Flowers:- Sessile, solitary or in leafy cymes or spikes. Petals and sepals usually 5; calyx tubular, persistent; petals imbricate. Outer whorl of stamens shorter than the inner. Ovary sessile, of 3(-4) carpels;