Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, usually glabrous and succulent. Stipules scarious, hair-like or 0. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 2. Petals 4-6, often shed quickly. Stamens as many as petals or more numerous. Ovary superior or half-inferior (Portulaca), 1-locular. Fruit a capsule.
Worldwide: 32 genera and 380 species, cosmopolitan, with the highest concentration of species in arid areas of the Southern hemisphere. Mozambique: 3 genera and 9 taxa. |
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