Pet obovate to obcordate; stamens 10, usually all with anthers (some staminodial in G. pusillum); filaments usually broadened below; stigmas 5, linear; each carpel-body (the basal, thickened portion of the carpel, filled by a seed) prolonged at maturity into a long, slender beak, these covering and adnate to the stylar column, which may project beyond the thickened portion as a slender stylar beak; carpel-bodies and their beaks typically separating acropetally from the stylar column at maturity, becoming outwardly coiled, the tip of the carpel-beak commonly remaining attached to the column at the summit, the carpel-body persistent at the basal (reflexed) end of its beak and opening ventrally to eject its seed, or sometimes the carpel-body disarticulating from its beak and separately deciduous; herbs with palmately lobed to divided or even compound lvs, the cauline ones chiefly opposite; fls pink or purple to white, commonly pedicellate in pairs at the end of axillary branches or peduncles. 300, cosmop.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
