Synonym: Illecebraceae
Genera: Paronychia, Herniaria.
BotanyAnnual, sometimes a perennial, glabrous, much-branched, bushy or spreading herb
Root: long tap-root.
Stem: prostrate or ascending; 30 cm long.
Leaves: alternate; ± 2 by 0.5 cm; narrowly oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic; apex acute or more rarely obtuse, narrowing gradually to the sessile or subsessile base; glaucous; midrib prominent, lateral nerves inconspicuous; stipules whitish, ± 1 mm; membranous, asymmetrically ovate-auriculate; margins subentire or irregularly crenate.
Inflorescence: compact, axillary or terminal, sessile or very shortly pedunculate clusters on leafy branches.
Flowers: pedicels very short, scarcely visible or 1 mm long; bracts 1 mm long, membranous, whitish, ovate; receptacle 0·75–1·35 mm. long, broadly turbinate.
Calyx: sepals 0·5–0·8 × 0·3–0·8 mm., ovate-oblong, obtuse, margins membranous.
Corolla: petals white, 0·3–0·55 × 0·3–0·4 mm., membranous, oblong.
Stamens: shorter than the petals; anthers ovate.
Ovary: ovoid, with 3 subsessile spreading stigmas.
Fruits: trigonously ovoid, enclosed in the persistent perianth, horn-coloured, minutely granular; 0.9 by 0.7 mm.
Seeds: subglobose; 0.7 mm in diameter.