BEGONIACEAE
Herbs or undershrubs, monoecious, succulents, mostly erect, creeping or acaulescent; often with a rhizome or tuber. Stem jointed. Leaves alternate, mostly 2-ranked, simple, petiolate, mostly palmately nerved and often so lobed, the base oblique; stipules caducous or early deciduous. Flowers in bracteate cymes, unisexual, zygomorphic or actinomorphic, epigynous or perigynous. Male Flowers: Perianth of 2 outer and 2 inner segments, opposite and decussate, valvate, inner segments usually smaller. Stamens numerous, in many whorls, free or briefly connate at base, anthers bithecous, basifixed, a connective often exserted, dehiscence longitudinal. Female Flowers: Perianth of 2-5 segments, imbricate. Staminodes absent or poorly developed. Carpels usually 3(2 or 5), syncarpous, ovary inferior or half- inferior, of 1-3(-6)-winged, 3-locular, placentation usually axile, ovules numerous on simple, forked or lobed placentas, anatropous; styles 2-5, free or basally connate; the stigmas branched, strongly papillose on all sides and often twisted. Fruit a loculicidal bony capsule or rarely a berry. Seeds many, minute, oval or rounded.
2 genera and about 2054 species
