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: Perennial herb 5--40 cm; caudex branches generally many. Stem: erect, glabrous to puberulent, glandular or not. Leaf: slightly reduced upward, 1--5 cm, 2--30 mm wide; lower lanceolate to +- round; upper linear to ovate. Inflorescence: axillary and terminal; pedicel +- 0 to short. Flower: nodding to +- spreading; calyx 6--10 mm, puberulent, glandular or not, faintly 10-veined, lobes 2--5 mm; petal to 2 × calyx, claw glabrous to ciliate, appendages 2, limb 4--6(--8)-lobed, white to +- green or +- pink, lobes linear; stamens exserted; styles 3, exserted. Fruit: ovoid; stalk 1--2.5 mm, puberulent. Seed: 2--2.5 mm, brown.

Reference: Rabeler & Gandhi 2021 J Bot Res Inst Texas 15:57--58