Common Name: BELLFLOWER FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb [tree]. Leaf: generally cauline, generally simple, generally alternate, petioled or not; stipules 0. Inflorescence: cyme, panicle, raceme, spike, or flowers 1; terminal or in axils of leaf-like or reduced bracts. Flower: bisexual, cleistogamous or open, radial or bilateral, inverted (pedicel twisted 180°) or not; hypanthium generally present, +- fused to ovary; sepals generally 5; corolla radial to 2-lipped, petals generally fused, tube deeply divided on 1 side or not, lobes generally 5; stamens 5, free or +- fused (anthers, filaments fused into tube or filaments fused above middle); ovary inferior or 1/2 inferior (superior in fruit), chambers 1--3, placentas axile or parietal, ovules many, style generally 1, 2--5-branched. Fruit: generally capsule, open on sides or top by pores or short valves. Seed: many.
Genera In Family: +- 90 genera, +- 2500 species: worldwide. Note: Some cultivated for ornament (Campanula, Jasione, Lobelia). Subfamilies sometimes treated as families. Positions of flower parts given after flowering inversion, if any. Parishella moved to Nemacladus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Nancy R. Morin, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Biennial, perennial herb [shrub], glabrous or hairy. Leaf: mostly basal or all cauline, 0.5--1.5 cm wide, lance-linear to elliptic, sessile, margin with small, gland-tipped teeth; cauline alternate. Inflorescence: raceme [or spike or panicle]. Flower: bilateral, inverted in full bloom by twisted pedicel; corolla red, blue (or white), tube entire or with an upper sinus, limb strongly 2-lipped, 2 lobes of upper lip < 3 of lower; stamens fused, generally 2 smaller anthers each with terminal tuft of bristles, 1 sometimes triangular or horn-like, others linear, shorter; ovary +- spheric, chambers 2, placentas 2, axile. Fruit: spheric, valves 2, at top, within sepals, short.
Etymology: (Matthias de l'Obel, Flemish botanist, 1538--1616)
eFlora Treatment Author: Tina Ayers