Perennial herb, us. summer-green, clad in appressed to spreading or retrorse hairs; stock stout, hard, woody, up to 2 cm. diam., deeply descending, often multicipital. Stems slender, branching from base upwards, (8)-30-(60) cm. long. Lvs on very slender petioles 4-15 cm. long, stipules linear-lanceolate, acuminate, (2)-3-(5) mm. long, sts more. Lamina ± reniform (10)-30-45 mm. diam., thin, (3)-5-(7)-lobed almost to base; lobes narrow-oblong, up to ± 3 mm. wide; primary lobes again cut into 3-5 segs. Peduncles very slender c. 2-4 cm. long, pedicels c. 1 cm. long. Fls 1-2; sepals broad-ovate, acute, ± awned, 4-6 mm. long; petals obcordate, emarginate, 6-9 mm. long; carpels ± 15 mm. long, including beak; seeds ± 2 mm. long, oblong in outline, finely striate-reticulate.

Fls 5-merous, hypog., solitary or in cymes, mostly perfect and regular or nearly so; sepals and petals imbricate; glands of disk 5. Stamens and staminodes in 3 whorls; ovary us. 3-5-celled, long-styled; ovules axile, us. 2 per cell, one maturing. Fr. a lobed beaked capsule, the carpels opening from base to apex; embryo us. curved, endosperm scanty to 0. Herbaceous to shrubby annuals, biennials, or perennials, with alt., stipulate, simple to compound lvs. Some 11 genera of wide distribution, and 750 spp.

Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, occasionally tree-like. Lvs alternate or opposite, mostly simple and lobed, less often entire or compound, usually stipulate. Fls in few- to many-flowered umbels, rarely solitary, ☿, actinomorphic to somewhat zygomorphic, axillary; bracts present or 0. Sepals (4)-5, persistent, usually free, less commonly connate to 1/2 way; uppermost sepal sometimes spurred. Petals usually 5, sometimes 2 or 4, rarely 0, usually imbricate, occasionally distant, rarely contorted. Stamens 2-(3)× as many as petals, sometimes some lacking anthers; filaments free or connate at base; anthers 2-locular, versatile. Ovary superior, (2)-3-5-celled, beaked; ovules 1-2 in each loculus, pendulous; style adhering to beak, with 5 stigmatic branches, the outer part often separating at fruiting and forming 5 long awns attached to the apex of the central rachis. Fr. lobed, dry, with 1 seed per carpel, breaking from the beak into 1-(2)-seeded mericarps with styles usually persistent. Seed with 0 or little endosperm.