Plants herbs or subshrubs. Leaves opposite, often jointed at the base, stipules scarious or absent; blades simple, entire. Inflorescences usually cymose, sometimes racemelike, congested, or of solitary flowers. Flowers radially symmetric, 4-5(-8)-merous, receptacles sometimes extended in to a cupular perigonium; sepals free or united into a calyx tube; petals as many as the sepals, free, sometimes minute or absent; stamens usually twice as many as tge sepals, in 2 whorls, innermost sometimes represented by staminodes; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; ovaries superior, sometimes stalked (on a "carpophore"), 1-celled or incompletely septate at the base, placentation free-central or basal, with 1-many ovules; styles 2-5, often separate to the base, sometimes mostly connate. Fruits capsules dehiscing by valves or apical teeth or thin-walled, 1-seeded utricles. Seeds often reniform or shaped like a snail shell (cochleate), with a curved embryo, outer surface often tuberculate or papillate.
Caryophyllaceae include about 83 genera and 2000 species. The species are most numerous in north temperate regions and are mainly restricted to montane areas in the tropics.
