Authority:

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

Family:

Nyctaginaceae

Description:

Family Description - Fls perfect (in ours) or unisexual, hypogynous; cor none; cal gamosepalous, campanulate or funnelform, often corolloid, its base closely investing the ovary; stamens 1–many (1–5 in ours); filaments slender, exsert, usually unequal; gynoecium a single carpel with a long, slender style and a single basal ovule; fr a utricle or achene or nut, commonly enclosed in the persistent (and often indurated) base of the cal-tube, the collective structure called an anthocarp; seed with large, dicotyledonous, straight or more often curved, peripheral embryo and abundant or scanty perisperm; herbs or sometimes woody plants, commonly with anomalous secondary growth, producing betalains but not anthocyanins; lvs opposite or rarely alternate, simple, entire, exstipulate; 1–several fls often enclosed by a cal-like involucre, the cor-like cal and cal-like involucre easily mistaken for a fl with cal and cor. 30/300.

Common Names:

The four-o'clock family