Description of the family:
Herbs (mostly, in ours), shrubs, climbers or rarely trees. Stems usually with sheathing stipules (ochreae). Leaves simple, alternate (rarely subopposite). Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual. Petals 0. Perianth segments 3-6, sepaloid or petaloid, free or connate, persistent. Ovary superior, 1-locular, with a solitary ovule. Fruit a nut, indehiscent, hard, 3-angled or biconvex, usually enveloped in the perianth. Seeds with abundant endosperm.
Worldwide:
46 genera and 1100 species, ± cosmopolitan, but especially northern temperate.
Zimbabwe:
6 genera and 31 taxa.
- Emex Campd.
- Fagopyrum Mill.
- Oxygonum Burch.
- Persicaria (L.) Mill.
- Polygonum L.
- Rumex L.