Polycarpaea

Herbs [small shrubs], annual [perennial]. Taproots slender to stout. Stems erect, branched, terete. Leaves opposite, sometimes appearing whorled, not connate, short-petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile (cauline leaves); stipules 2 per node, white, lanceolate, margins entire, apex hairlike; blade 1-veined, oblong-ovate to suborbiculate (basal leaves), subulate to linear (cauline leaves), not succulent, apex acute or hairlike. Inflorescences terminal, compact to loose cymes; bracts paired, scarious. Pedicels erect or spreading. Flowers: perianth and androecium perigynous; hypanthium cup-shaped, not abruptly expanded distally; sepals distinct, silvery with brown midrib, ovate to lanceolate, not keeled, 2.2–3.1 mm, scarious, margins scarious, apex acute; petals 5, pink, blade apex irregularly toothed or entire; nectaries between filament bases; stamens 5; filaments distinct; style 1, filiform, minute, less than 0.1 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3, subcapitate, smooth to obscurely papillate (50×). Capsules ellipsoid, opening by 3 recurved valves; carpophore present. Seeds 5–8, tan, translucent, pyriform, not compressed, rugulose, marginal wing absent, appendage absent. x = 9.