CARYOPHYLLACEAE (Pink Family)

(Rabeler and Hartman, 2005)

Contributed by Richard K. Rabeler and Ronald L. Hartman

Plants annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, rarely dioecious, glabrous or pubescent with unbranched hairs or stalked glands. Stems simple or branched, erect to spreading, often somewhat thickened at the nodes. Leaves opposite, sometimes appearing whorled, the pair of leaves at each node equal in size or nearly so, often petiolate, the bases of adjacent leaves at a node sometimes fused around the stem. Stipules mostly absent, when present then scarious, white or silvery, slender to broadly triangular. Leaf blades simple, linear to broadly ovate, often 1-veined, the margins entire. Inflorescences terminal or axillary clusters or panicles, sometimes appearing headlike or the flowers solitary at the stem or branch tips. Bracts often present at the inflorescence branch points, these opposite or rarely whorled, herbaceous or papery; 1–3 pairs (sometimes appearing whorled) of sepaloid bracts (epicalyx) sometimes also present immediately subtending the flower. Flowers actinomorphic, perfect or rarely imperfect, hypogynous (technically perigynous in a few genera). Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals, these separate or fused, sometimes only at the base, the tips sometimes awned, persistent at fruiting. Corolla absent or more commonly the petals 4 or 5 (rarely 1), distinct, sometimes notched or 2-lobed at the tip, sometimes tapered to a slender, stalklike base, rarely (in Saponaria) with a small appendage on the upper surface at the base of the spreading apical portion (blade). Stamens mostly 4, 5, or 10, in 1 or 2 whorls, the filaments distinct or fused basally into a short tube (in Silene). Staminodes usually absent (minute and scalelike in Geocarpon). Pistil 1 per flower, the ovary superior, of 2–5 fused carpels, with 1 locule (sometimes appearing 2-locular toward the base) or less commonly 3–5 locules. Styles mostly 2–5, sometimes fused toward the base, the stigmas mostly linear. Fruits capsules, many-seeded and dehiscing longitudinally from the tip usually into teeth, or achenelike, 1-seeded and indehiscent or dehiscing irregularly with age. Seeds kidney-shaped to globose, sometimes more or less oblong and flattened, rarely with marginal wings or terminal appendages, the embryo appearing curved or coiled. Eighty-two to 88 genera, about 3,000 species, worldwide, especially in north-temperate, alpine, and Mediterranean areas.

Members of this family and Molluginaceae are exceptional within the order Caryophyllales because they possess anthocyanin pigments rather than betalains (as in the related families Aizoaceae, Amaranthaceae, Cactaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Phytolaccaceae, and Portulacaceae). The number of genera recognized within the family depends mainly on whether one adopts a broad (Greuter, 1995; Morton, 2005c) or narrow (Oxelman et al., 2001) circumscription of Silene, the largest genus in the family. The number of genera may increase to over 120 if Silene is further subdivided (as has been done by some Old World authors) and if other genera, such as Minuartia and Stellaria, are similarly divided. Additional molecular work may assist in providing evidence for the recognition (or not) of such segregate genera.

This family includes many taxa cultivated as ornamentals, including Dianthus, Gypsophila L., and Silene. There also are many weedy taxa, mostly introductions from Eurasia. Of the 21 genera found in Missouri, 13 are entirely nonnative: Agrostemma, Arenaria, Atocion, Dianthus, Holosteum, Lychnis, Myosoton, Petrorhagia, Saponaria, Scleranthus, Spergula, Spergularia, and Vaccaria.