Common Name: PINK FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; rarely dioecious (Silene), taprooted or rhizome generally slender. Leaf: simple, generally opposite (subwhorled), entire, pairs at nodes often +- connected at bases; stipules generally 0; petiole generally 0. Inflorescence: generally cyme, generally open; flowers 1--many; involucre generally 0 (present in Dianthus, Petrorhagia). Flower: generally bisexual, radial; hypanthium often present but obscure; sepals (4)5, +- free or fused into a tube, margins generally scarious, more so on inner 2 or not, tube generally not scarious, awns generally 0; petals (4)5 or 0, generally tapered to base (or with claw long, limb expanded), entire to 2--several-lobed, limb generally without scale-like appendages adaxially, generally without ear-like lobes at base; stamens generally 10, generally fertile, generally free, generally from ovary base; nectaries 0 or 5; ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, placentas basal or free-central, styles 2--5 with 0 branches or 1 with 2--3 branches. Fruit: capsule or utricle (rarely +- dehiscent), generally sessile. Seed: appendage generally 0 (present in Moehringia).
Genera In Family: 83 or 89 genera, 3000 species: widespread, especially arctic, alpine, temperate northern hemisphere; some cultivated (Agrostemma, Arenaria, Cerastium, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Sagina, Saponaria, Silene, Vaccaria). Note: Apetalous Caryophyllaceae can also be keyed in Rabeler & Hartman 2005 FNANM 5:5--8.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman & Richard K. Rabeler, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: BABY'S-BREATH
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, erect, taprooted or rhizomed. Leaf: blade +- lanceolate to oblong; veins 1--3, often faint. Inflorescence: generally panicle-like, terminal; flowers +- few to many; pedicels 1--35+ mm. Flower: sepals 5, fused, glabrous or glandular-hairy, tube +- prominent, +- 1.3--5 mm, 0.8--2 mm diam, cup- to bell-shaped, round to angled in ×-section, white-scarious between sepals, veins +- 5, teeth 0.2--1 mm, < tube, lanceolate to triangular; petals 5, +- 2.2--9 mm, claw long, limb entire to notched; styles 2, 1.2--2.5 mm. Fruit: capsule, oblong to spheric; teeth 4, ascending to recurved. Seed: 2--several, black.
Species In Genus: 150 species: temperate Eurasia, northern Africa, Australia. Etymology: (Greek: gypsum lover, from habitat of 1 sp.)
Reference: Pringle 2005 FNANM 5:153--156