Caperonia

Erect annual herbs; monoecious, rarely dioecious. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; stipulate. Flowers in lax, axillary and solitary, pedunculate racemes; upper flowers male, lower 1 or more female. Male flowers: calyx closed in bud, ovoid or subglobose, splitting into 5 valvate lobes; petals 5, imbricate, subequal or with 2 lowest reduced or even obsolete; disc obsolete; stamens usually 10; filaments connate below into a column, 2-seriate above, free portion spreading; anthers short, ovoid, with 2 thecae pendulous from glandular connective and dehiscing longitudinally; ovary rudimentary, at apex of staminal column. Female flowers: sepals 5(or 6), generally unequal, imbricate, outer smaller than inner; petals 5, subequal; disc absent; ovary sessile, 3-locular, with ovules solitary in each locule; styles slightly connate at base, ovate, deeply laciniate. Fruit a capsule with bivalved cocci, with obtuse or subulate processes mixed with or passing into gland-tipped setae; endocarp thinly crustaceous; columella not usually persistent. Seeds subglobose or oblong-globose, with minutely punctate-reticulate testa, without caruncle but with thin adhering aril which may form a false raphe; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat. x = 11 (1 report, polyploidy).