Fls us. perfect, regular; calyx 5-8-lobed, tube free or adnate to ovary; petals 0; red to white petaloid staminodes ∞, inserted in calyx tube; stamens perig., few to many. Ovary 1- to several-celled; ovules one to many. Fr. various. Herbs or low shrubs, often fleshy, with us. opp. exstipulate lvs. Widespread, with some 20 genera and 650 spp. Often given the family name .

Prostrate to erect or stemless annual to perennial usually succulent herbs or shrubs. Lvs usually opposite, rarely alternate, stipulate or exstipulate, fleshy, terete to trigonous or flat, usually smooth or papillate, rarely pubescent or lepidote; papillae sometimes glittering. Fls solitary or in loose cymes. Sepals (3)-4-6-(8), unequal, rarely equal. Petals many or rarely 0, brightly coloured, in 1-several series, free or very shortly fused at base. Staminodes present or 0. Stamens usually many, rarely 1 or few. Ovary usually inferior, rarely 1/2-inferior to superior, 2-5-(16)-locular; placentation axile to parietal; ovules numerous. Stigmas free, as many as locules. Fr. usually a multicelled capsule opening when wet by as many winged or unwinged valves as the styles, by the action of 2 expanding keels on the inner surface of each; locules with or without a lid; each placenta with or without a distal tubercle, or tubercle 2-lobed; rarely the fr. indehiscent, mucilaginous, or a berry or nut or circumscissile capsule. Seeds numerous, ovoid, sometimes compressed, variously sculptured or smooth; embryo large, curved around mealy endosperm.