Latin hernia—rupture, for which the plant was a supposed remedy.
Annual or perennial trailing herbs. Leaves small, ovate to obovate, opposite, often alternate above, with small green stipules. Flowers minute, in dense axillary clusters. Sepals 5. Petals 5, shorter than the sepals. Style 1 with stigma divided in two at the tip. Fruit a nutlet inside persistent sepals; seed 1, shiny black.
Seed and division.
Trailing herb with leaf stipules and small green floral bracts.
About 15 species from Asia, Africa and Europe.
Source: (1997). Caryophyllaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
