Description of the family:
Small trees, shrubs or perennial or annual herbs. Stipules usually 0, but sometimes present and if so, small and gland-like. Leaves alternate (in ours), simple, entire. Sepals 5; two lateral ones often petal-like (wings); two anterior ones sometimes joined. Petals 3-5. Stamens 5-8; filaments usually united in a slit tube. Ovary superior, 1- or 2-locular. Fruit (in ours) a capsule or a samara.
Worldwide:
17 genera and 950 species, ± cosmopolitan, but not in the W Pacific.
Zimbabwe:
4 genera and 32 taxa.
- Carpolobia G. Don
- Muraltia DC.
- Polygala L.
- Securidaca L.