Description: Annual, biennial or perennial herbs.
Leaves alternate, simple and lobed or pinnately compound.
Inflorescence a monochasium cyme. Calyx almost divided to base, usually persistent and enlarging in fruit. Corolla rotate to campanulate, white, blue or purple. Stamens exserted or included. Style variously cleft, from shortly bifid to almost completely divided.
Capsule globose to ovoid; seeds 2–many.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 200 species, mostly North America. Australia: 1 species (naturalised).
Formerly placed in family Hydrophyllaceae which is now included in Boraginaceae.
Text by S.M. Hastings, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 3: 386 (1992), in Hydrophyllaceae.
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
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