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 most 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: +- 100 genera, 3000 species: widespread, especially arctic, alpine, temperate northern hemisphere; some cultivated (Agrostemma, Arenaria, Atocion, Cerastium, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Sagina, Saponaria, Silene). Note: Apetalous Caryophyllaceae can also be keyed in Rabeler & Hartman 2005 FNANM 5:5--8. Taxa of Minuartia in TJM2 treated here in Cherleria and Sabulina; Pseudostellaria in Hartmaniella and Torreyostellaria; Vaccaria in Gypsophila; Velezia in Dianthus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased) & Richard K. Rabeler, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin & Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: RUPTUREWORT
Habit: Annual, +- prostrate, taprooted. Leaf: opposite below, alternate above, oblanceolate to obovate; vein 0--1; stipules 0.4--1 mm, ovate to deltate, scarious, ciliate, white. Inflorescence: axillary; flowers 3--10, dense, +- sessile. Flower: hypanthium cup-like, not abruptly expanded above; sepals 5, 0.6--1.2 mm, free, lanceolate to oblong, hairy, margin entire, not scarious; petals 0; stamens 2--5, staminodes 4--5, +- 0.5 mm, +- thread-like, on hypanthium rim; styles 2, or 2-branched, 0.1--0.4 mm, united in lower 1/3. Fruit: utricle, obovoid. Seed: 1, dark red-brown.
Etymology: (Latin: rupture, 1 sp. being a supposed cure)
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased) & Richard K. Rabeler
Reference: Thieret et al. 2005 FNANM 5:43--45
Unabridged Reference: Akeroyd 1993 Fl. Europaea ed. 2, 1:182--184