Small heath-like shrubs, glabrous, scabrous or variously hairy, monoecious. Leaves alternate or apparently opposite, simple, coriaceous, margins thickened and entire, shortly petiolate; stipules minute. Flowers in upper leaf-axils; males in clusters on short peduncles; females solitary, subsessile; bracts present. Sepals 6, larger in male flowers; petals absent. Male flowers with 6 stamens, filaments free, anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; rudimentary ovary small. Female flowers with ovary 2- or 3-celled, 2- or 3-lobed, ovules 2 per cell, styles 2 or 3, stigmatic lobes thick, diverging. Fruit a 1-celled capsule, opening in 6 valves; seed 1 per capsule by abortion, obloid, smooth, caruncle present.