Erect or decumbent glabrous shrubs; branchlets without leaf scars. Leaves completely sheathing stems at base, concolorous, several unbranched or weakly branched veins ± visible on both surfaces. Flowers bisexual, solitary and terminating short branches, or in leafy terminal heads; individual flowers subtended by several indistinguishable bracts and bracteoles grading to sepals; petals 5, free or united to shortly above base, usually spreading, imbricate to almost valvate in bud; stamens free from corolla; filaments flat, inserted at the base of the ovary; anthers ± cohering around the style, glabrous to papillate-hairy; nectary absent; ovary 5-locular, with several ovules per locule, style filiform, inserted in a depression between the carpels. Fruit a loculicidal capsule.