Herbs, shrubs or suffrutices. Stipules present. Leaves alternate or opposite. Inflorescences usually axillary, sometimes pseudumbellate. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous. Sepals 5, free, but in Pelargonium the upper one with a spur fused to the pedicel. Petals 5, free, rarely 0. Ovary superior, 3-5-locular, beaked (in ours). Fruit a dry 5-celled schizocarp with 1 seed per cell, each mericarp and its apical sterile beak separating from the column and splitting open at maturity in various ways. Worldwide: 11 genera and 700 species, mainly temperate with few tropical. The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this family: |
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