Polemoniaceae
Annual or perennial herbs or occasionally shrubs. Lvs alternate or opposite, entire to pinnate or palmate, exstipulate. Fls usually terminal, often crowded in corymbose heads, ⚥, usually actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic. Calyx 5-merous, generally deeply lobed. Corolla 5-merous, funnelform, campanulate, or rotate; lobes contorted. Stamens 5, epipetalous, included or exserted; anthers versatile, sometimes unequal. Ovary superior, inserted on a disc, (2)-3-locular; ovules 1 or more in each cell; style 1; stigmas (2)-3. Fr. usually a loculicidal capsule, rarely indehiscent. Seeds endospermic.
Key
c. 15 genera, 300 spp., mostly N. America, a few in temperate Eurasia and some in Chile and Peru.
In addition to the herbaceous genera below, 2 spp. of the aromatic shrubby genus Cantua Cav. are common in cultivation.
