Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls in cymes or solitary, minute and greenish, hermaphrodite. Sepals 4 or 5 from rim of urceolate perig. cup; petals 0; stamens 1-10; ovary 1-celled with 1basal ovule (occ. 2); styles 2, free to base, stigmas 2; fr. an ind. 1(-2)-seeded nutlet enclosed within hardened perig. cup and persistent sepals; seed smooth, lenticular. Annual to perennial, us. densely branched, herbs with small, subulate, opp., connate, exstipulate lvs. Number of spp. variously estimated at from 10 to 150 in Europe, Asia, Africa, S. America, Australia, New Guinea and N.Z. Relationships of N.Z. and Australian forms need clarifying.