CHENOPODIACEAE  

Annual or perennial herbs, or subshrubs, erect or prostrate, +/- fleshy, usually glabrous to sparsely puberulous. Leaves alternate or in whorls of three, fleshy, entire, narrow, cylindrical or somewhat flattened. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, sessile, in clusters of (1-)3(-9) in upper axils of bracts, at length adnate to base of leaves, subtended by 2 or 3 minute, scarious, pellucid bracteoles. Perianth succulent, 5-lobed; lobes free or connate to middle, keeled, or rounded on back, sometimes cucullate or horned. Stamens 5, hypogynous or attached to perianth tube. Ovary free from or rarely united with perianth, hemispherical to conical, broadly sessile; ovule basal; stigmas 2-5. Fruit with membranous or sometimes spongy, thickened, indehiscent pericarp; pericarp thin, free from perianth; heterocarpy common. Seed horizontal or vertical, lenticular; testa smooth, thin, hard and glossy; endosperm 0 or scanty; embryo spiral. x= 9 (high polyploidy).

Annual or more often perennial herbs, shrubs or subshrubs, glabrous or pubescent; hairs 1- or few-celled, papillose, vesicular, setose or variously branched. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, usually semiterete or terete, fleshy, entire, sessile, narrow, often scale-like, sometimes linear-subulate, sometimes amplexicaul at base. Inflorescences clusters of loose or dense, simple or paniculate spikes, or flowers solitary, bracteate; bracts leaf-like or scaly; bracteoles 2, green at least in upper part, with wide hyaline margins +/- enclosing the small flowers, often cucullate. Flowers axillary, usually bisexual, sessile, protandrous. Tepals 4 or 5, outer wider than inner, radially veined, each tepal developing in fruit above the middle a scarious horizontally spreading, translucent to opaque, pinkish to pale brown wing. Stamens 5 or less, antitepalous; filaments band-shaped, fused at ovary base or inserted on outside of disc; anthers linear, oval or sagittate in outline, often with a connective disc; disc thin or thick, often lobed, glabrous, glandular papillose or ciliate; apically with small or large, distinctly shaped appendages. Ovary globose, depressed or broadly ovoid, narrowed into style; ovule basal, subsessile, suspended from apex of an enlarged funicle; style short or long, thin or thick, rarely 0; stigmas 2, rarely 3. Fruit usually consisting of a utricle and adnate fruiting perianth, both shed together as an anemophilous diaspore; pericarp membranous or fleshy. Seed orbicular, with membranous testa, usually horizontal; endosperm almost 0; embryo plano- or conical-spiral, greenish. x= 9 (high polyploidy).

Grey aromatic shrubs. Leaves alternate, hastate, roundish-cordate to ovate-lanceolate, entire. Inflorescences terminal spikes. Flowers unisexual. Male flowers with 5 tepals, ovate; stamens 5, longer than perianth. Female flowers with 3 or 4 very small tepals and 2 broad-based bracts; bracts becoming fleshy, encircling, but not covering fruit. Fruit white or greenish. Seed compressed with rounded margin, smooth, shiny, black, vertical; embryo +/- circular.

Succulent annual or perennial herbs, glabrous; stems not jointed. Leaves opposite or upper ones alternate, reduced to small, succulent scales, subglobose to ovoid, amplexicaul. Inflorescences densely spicate; bracts fleshy, spirally placed, suborbicular, persistent. Flowers bisexual, in triads, in axils of spirally arranged bracteal scales, connate to one another and adnate to bracts. Perianth small, connate, compressed 4-angled, 3-dentate at apex. Stamens 1-3, shortly exserted; thecae without connectival appendages. Ovary pear-shaped, +/- laterally compressed; styles 2; stigmas 2, subulate. Fruit enclosed in perianth with a membranous pericarp. Seed ovoid to +/- circular, compressed; endosperm copious, central; embryo hook-shaped. x= 9 (1 report).

Perennial herbs or weak shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, linear to broadly hastate, mealy when young. Inflorescences racemose or open, paniculate clusters; pedicels constricted at apex. Flowers small; terminal flower of cluster bisexual; lateral flowers female, without staminodes. Tepals 5, rarely 4. Stamens 1-3, glabrous; disc 0. Ovary glabrous; stigmas 2, slender. Fruit not enveloped by perianth; pericarp membranous or succulent. Seed horizontal, lenticular with rounded margin; endosperm central, copious; embryo annular.