About Caryophyllaceae
The Caryophyllaceae plant family is fairly uniform and easily recognizable, despite its overall size and some uncertainty about the mutual relationships of its members. Most species are herbaceous annuals or perennials that die back above ground each year. A small number of species are shrubs or small trees, including some species in the genus Acanthophyllum. Most plants in this family are non-succulent, meaning they do not have fleshy stems or leaves. Their stems have swollen nodes. Leaves are almost always arranged opposite one another, and only rarely arranged in whorls. Leaf blades are entire, petiolate, and often have stipules, which do not form sheaths. The bisexual flowers are terminal, growing either singly or in branched or forked cymes. The inflorescence is usually dichasial at least in its lower sections: in the axil of the primary flower stalk (peduncle) of the cyme's terminal flower, two new single-flower branches grow out on each side, below the original terminal flower. When terminal flowers are absent, the inflorescence becomes a monochasia, a monoparous cyme with one flower per inflorescence axis. In the most extreme cases, this results in a single flower, as seen in Githago and Arenaria. The flowers are regular, and most have five petals and five sepals, though some have four petals. Sepals may be either free from one another or united. Petals can be entire, fringed, or deeply cleft. The calyx may be cylindrically inflated, such as in the genus Silene. There are typically five or 10 stamens, more rarely four or eight, and the stamen count mostly matches the number of perianth parts. The superior syncarpous gynoecium holds two to five united carpels that form a compound pistil, and the compound ovary has a single chamber inside. Fruits are either a utricle with one seed, or a capsule holding multiple seeds.
