Description: Annual or perennial herbs, hairy with glandular or simple, non-glandular hairs.
Leaves alternate, simple, margins entire or toothed or lobed, petiolate or sessile.
Inflorescences dense unilateral spikes. Flowers bisexual, slightly zygomorphic, each subtended by a leafy bract. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 5-lobed, enlarging in fruit. Corolla broad-funnel-shaped, yellow or white; limb 5-lobed. Stamens 5, subequal, inserted near base of corolla tube; anthers 2-locular, basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary 2-locular.
Fruit a capsule, ± smooth, opening by a apical lid, enclosed by calyx.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species, Europe, Africa to C Asia. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas., S.A.
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Hyoscyamus niger |
|
