Annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Leaves variously lobed or divided, stipulate. Flowers usually regular, rarely zygomorphic, solitary or in umbellate cymes, hypogynous. Sepals and petals 5, free, imbricate; nectar glands alternating with the petals. Stamens 10-15, free or united at the base; staminodes frequent. Ovary 5-locular. Capsule splitting into five 1-seeded mericarps, often united to long awns.