Bergia

Erect or prostrate, annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs; at least the new growth hairy; leaves opposite, sessile or shortly petiolate, lamina entire, margins serrulate; stipules persistent, usually fringed, sometimes connate or united with petiole. Flowers in clusters (Victorian species) or solitary in leaf-axils; sepals 3 or 5, acute, free or shortly fused at base, keeled or winged on back, often fringed; petals equal in number to sepals; stamens 3–10, opposite sepals; ovary 3–5-locular; styles as many as locules, free or shortly united. Fruit a ± firm, ovoid to globose capsule, the chambers dehiscing along lines opposite the petals. Seeds narrowly ovoid, shortly cylindric or subreniform, smooth to trabeculate or alveolate.