Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls in spikes on long or short axillary scapes; bracts small, each subtending a single sessile fl. Sepals 4, ± keeled, anterior and posterior often dissimilar; corolla scarious, persistent, with short tube and 4 lobes; stamens 4, alternating with corolla-lobes, filaments long, anthers versatile, dehiscing longitudinally; ovary superior, bilocular, ovules 1 to many in each loculus, style simple with long stigma; fr. us. a circumscissle capsule, rarely an ind. nutlet. Seeds hard, often mucilaginous when wet; embryo erect. Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs. Lvs mostly linear or broad, exstipulate, sheathing at base, entire or toothed, spiral, alt. or opp., often rosulate. 3 genera, about 200 spp., mainly temperate.