Tetragonia

Erect to prostrate, annual or perennial herbs or shrublets, rarely with tuber and annual shoots, often minutely papillose. Leaves alternate, subsucculent, often rhomboid; stipules 0. Inflorescences of 1-many, mostly axillary, rarely terminal flowers. Flowers bisexual or sometimes with male flowers terminating inflorescences. Perianth free, 3-5(-7)-lobed; tube produced above ovary, rarely connate at base. Stamens few to many, separate or fascicled. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, (1-)3-8(9)-locular, with 1 pendulous ovule per locule; styles as many as locules, papillose. Fruit a nut, terete, winged, ridged, horned or spiny. Seeds solitary, subreniform with membranous testa, light brown; embryo hook- or horseshoe-shaped; cotyledons linear-oblong, fleshy; endosperm starchy. x= 8 (high polyploidy).