ACHARIACEAE  

Acaulescent perennial herbs with a subhorizontal rhizome and fleshy roots. Leaves rosulate, simple, ovate or cordate, petiolate, discolorous, crenate. Flowers solitary, pedicelled. Male flowers: sepals 5, linear, almost as long as corolla and adnate to it for almost its whole length; corolla 5-lobed, profusely veined, tube deeply campanulate, lobes shorter than tube, reflexed; glands 5, fleshy, situated at base of corolla tube; stamens 5, filaments arising in throat of corolla, shorter than anthers, flattened, anthers didymous with broad connective, pectinate. Female flowers: sepals 4 or 5, linear, adnate to corolla for half their length; corolla 4- or 5-lobed, tube campanulate, lobes much shorter than tube, transversely oblong, erect; glands 4 or 5, fleshy, situated at base of corolla tube; ovary sessile, with 10-15 ovules on 4 or 5 parietal placentas; style broadly linear, 4- or 5-lobed. Fruit a 4- or 5-valved capsule, enclosed in persistent corolla. Seeds several, ellipsoid, arillate.

Shrubby herbs. Leaves simple, petioled, deeply palmately lobed, toothed; stipules linear. Flowers solitary or few, cernuous. Male flowers: sepals 3 or 4, linear, recurved; corolla 3- or 4-lobed, pubescent, persistent, tube campanulate, lobes +/- as long as tube, ovate, slightly winged or keeled; glands 3 or 4, ciliate, at base of corolla tube; stamens 3 or 4, free, anthers oblong, didymous; ovary absent. Female flowers: sepals 3 or 4, hairy, lanceolate, larger than in male flowers; corolla pubescent, larger than in male flowers; tube campanulate, winged; glands at base of corolla tube; ovary subsessile, somewhat compressed, with 3-5 ovules on 3-5 parietal placentas, pubescent; style about as long as ovary, 3-5-lobed. Fruit a capsule enclosed in persistent corolla, 3-5-valved, with persistent style. Seeds subglobose, pitted, narrowly winged (arillate) on one side, pubescent.