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: Annual, from taproot. Stem: prostrate, decumbent, or erect; base generally +- brown or +- purple; branches 0 or below middle. Leaf: basal; petiole short or 0. Inflorescence: +- raceme-like; bract 1 per flower, small; pedicel generally thread-like. Flower: inverted or not; sepals linear to triangular; corolla +- radial or 2-lipped, lobes 5; filaments free at base, fused into tube around style distally, appendages attached to a stalk or directly on 2 adjacent filaments, each with 2--12 cells, anthers free, all alike; ovary superior to 1/2 inferior, hemispheric to obconic, nectary glands 3, mounded or donut-like, on free part of ovary, stigma 2-lobed, papillate. Fruit: generally > hypanthium, hemispheric to fusiform, top pointed or rounded, chambers 2; open at top generally by 2 valves (or circumscissile). Seed: elliptic to oblong.
Etymology: (Greek: thread-like branch) Note: In descriptions, "filaments" including both free and fused parts thereof.
Unabridged Note: Taxonomic changes from TJM (1993) based on ITS, atpB, morphology. Parishella californica nested within Nemacladus, in which it is here treated.
Reference: Morin 2008 J Bot Res Inst Texas 2:397--400
Unabridged Reference: McVaugh 1942 N Amer Flora 32A:1--134