The World Flora Online

Herbs, annual or perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs, . Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, usually estipulate, sometimes stipulate (Tuberaria), , petiolate or sessile; blade 1- or 3- [5-]veined from base, not lobed, , margins entire [crenate, serrate], sometimes revolute and/or undulate. Inflorescences usually corymbose, cymose, paniculate, racemose, thyrsiform, or umbellate, seldom solitary flowers. Pedicels present or absent; bracts present or absent. Flowers chasmogamous or cleistogamous; sepals , 3–5; petals , usually 3–5, , green, dark red, pink, purple, red, white, or yellow; stamens (3–)5–150+; ; ovaries superior, 2-, 3-, 5-, or 6–12-carpellate; placentation parietal; styles 0 or 1; stigmas 1 or 3; ovules orthotropous [anatropous], bitegmic, crassinucellate. Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal [septifragal]. Seeds (1–)3–800+ per capsule, .

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Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs. Leaves usually opposite, rarely alternate, stipulate or estipulate; leaf blade simple. Inflorescence 1-flowered or cymose, sometimes racemelike or paniclelike. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 5; outer 2 smaller, sometimes absent. Petals (3 or)5, white, pink, yellow, or orange, sometimes with ± black blotches at base, crumpled in bud, caducous. Stamens many; filaments free, unequal in length, inserted in elongated or discoid torus; anthers 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent. Gynoecium of 3-5(-10) carpels; ovary superior, 1-loculed or imperfectly 3-5-loculed; placentas parietal; ovules 2 to many, orthotropous, rarely anatropous; style 1; stigmas 3. Capsule leathery or woody, loculicidal. Seeds small, often angled and coarse on surface. Embryo often curved, or circinate; cotyledons narrow; endosperm powdery or cartilaginous.

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Fls hypogynous, perfect, regular except the cal; sep typically 5, the 2 outer much smaller or narrower than the 3 inner, and sometimes adnate to them; pet 5 or sometimes 3, distinct, often fugacious, or lacking in some fls; stamens irregular in number, often numerous, the filaments distinct; ovary superior, unilocular, with 3(–10) parietal (often intruded) placentas; ovules few to many; style 1, or the stigma(s) sessile; fr a loculicidal capsule, usually separating to the base and ± enclosed by the persistent cal; seeds with abundant endosperm and a dicotyledonous, usually curved or coiled or folded embryo; herbs or shrubs with simple, entire, alternate, opposite, or verticillate lvs and cymose fls. 8/200, widespread.

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SELECTED REFERENCES Arrington, J. M. 2004. Systematics of the Cistaceae. Ph.D. dissertation. Duke University. Arrington, J. M. and K. Kubitzki. 2003. Cistaceae. In: K. Kubitzki et al., eds. 1990+. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. 10+ vols. Berlin etc. Vol. 5, pp. 62–70. Guzmán, B. and P. Vargas. 2009. Historical biogeography and character evolution of Cistaceae (Malvales) based on analysis of plastid rbcL and trnL-trnF sequences. Organisms Diversity Evol. 9: 83–99.

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