Herbs perennial, rarely annual. Roots sometimes woody. Stems mostly caespitose, terete or angular, articulated, dilated at nodes. Leaves opposite, usually glaucescent, linear or lanceolate, veins parallel, base slightly connate, margin scabrid. Flowers solitary, several in a loose cyme, or numerous and clustered into capitula, subtended by 1--4 pairs of appressed bracts. Calyx cylindric, apically 5-toothed, veins 7, 9, or 11, without scarious commissures. Petals 5, purple, red, pink, or white; claw long; limb dentate or lacerate, rarely entire. Stamens 10. Ovary 1-loculed; ovules numerous. Gynophore long. Styles 2. Capsule cylindric, suboblong, or rarely ovoid, dehiscing by 4 teeth or valves. Seeds dorsiventrally compressed, orbicular or discoid, flat or concave; embryo erect; albumen eccentric.
Herbs, perennial (D. armeria annual or biennial), sometimes mat-forming. Taproots stout, rhizomes (when present) slender or stout. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched, terete or angled. Leaves connate proximally into sheath, petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile; blade 1-veined, linear or oblong to ovate, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal, open cymes, dense bracteate clusters or heads, or flowers solitary; bracts paired, herbaceous to scarious, or absent; involucel bracteoles 1-3 pairs, herbaceous or scarious. Pedicels erect in fruit. Flowers: sepals connate proximally into tube, 10-22 mm, tube green or reddish, 20-60-veined, ± cylindric, terete, commissures between sepals absent, lobes green or reddish, 3-8-veined, triangular to lanceolate, shorter than tube, margins white or reddish, mostly scarious, apex acute or obtuse; petals often pink or red, sometimes white or purple, sometimes spotted or with darker center, clawed, auricles absent, coronal appendages absent, blade apex dentate or fimbriate to 1/ 2 of length; nectaries at filament bases; stamens 10, adnate with petals to carpophore; filaments distinct; staminodes absent; ovary 1-locular; styles 2, filiform, 0.7-6 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 2, linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30×). Capsules ovoid to cylindric, opening by 4 teeth; carpophore present. Seeds 40-100+, blackish brown, shield-shaped, dorsiventrally compressed, papillose-striate to papillate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent; embryo central, straight. x = 15.
Fls solitary or in open or capitate cymes; cal subtended by 1–3 pairs of bracts, cylindric, with 20 or more nerves; pet 5, without auricles or appendages; stamens 10; styles 2; capsule dehiscent by 4 teeth; seeds disciform, concave-convex, the hilum at the center of the concave surface; embryo straight; annual to perennial herbs. 300, Old World.
Stamens 10, united at the base into a short ring.
Petals 5, claw of petal with two central longitudinal ridges (sometimes very inconspicuous).
Annual, biennial or generally short-lived perennial, occasionally suffruticose herbs, generally with a woody tap root.
Ovary ovoid, oblong or cylindric, placentation free-central; stigmas 2, free to base.
Calyx tubular, generally striate-nervose, 5-lobed, invested at the base by 1–12 pairs of calyx bracts.
Flowers solitary, fasciculate or clustered into heads.
Internode between calyx and corolla (anthophore) variable.
Leaves exstipulate, usually linear or linear-lanceolate.
Petals 5, with a long narrow claw
Stamens 10 in hermaphrodite flowers or abnormally reduced in number
Ovary unilocular; styles 2, distinct from the base
Inflorescences terminating the flowering stems, cymose, panicled, or variously aggregated-capitulate; a varying number of pairs of calycine bracts surrounding the calyx
Capsule cylindrical, oblong, or ovoid, opening by four apical valves or teeth.
Calyx tubular, 5-toothed, with numerous longitudinal parallel veins
Leaves exstipulate, generally “grass-like,” more or less connate at base forming a sheath above the often swollen nodes
| Name | Language | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pink, carnation, oeillet [Greek dios, divine, and anthos, flower, alluding to beauty or fragrance] |
|
