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 Schizotechium; 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.

Habit: Annual, erect, taprooted. Leaf: base sheathing, 1--9+ mm; blade linear to lance-linear; veins 3. Inflorescence: terminal, head-like; flowers generally few to several; involucre bracts 2--6, 5--12 mm wide, widely ovate, +- red to brown, scarious; pedicels 0--3 mm, hidden by involucre. Flower: sepals 5, fused, glabrous to sparsely, minutely hairy, tube prominent, 8--14 mm, 1--3 mm diam, cylindric, scarious between sepals, veins 15, lobes 0.5--1.8 mm, < tube, rounded; petals 5, 10--14 mm, claw long, limb entire or 2-lobed; styles 2, 9--12 mm. Fruit: capsule, ovoid; stalk 0.2--0.7 mm; valves 4, ascending to recurved. Seed: many, black-brown to black.
Etymology: (Greek: rock fissure, from habitat of some species)
Reference: Rabeler & Hartman 2005 FNANM 5:162--165