Small glandular-scabrid undershrubs with erect or decumbent annual stems from a woody crown; if perennial, the stems elongate, produce abbreviated side branches and adopt a more straggling habit. Leaves on the primary branches ovate, 2-4 cm long, 1-2 cm broad, acute, teeth many, close together, often double-serrulate, fairly soft in texture, veins narrow, with elongated cells, deciduous; on perennial stems the later leaves produced on the abbreviated secondary branchlets are smaller; stipules linear-acuminate, about 5 mm long. Flowers in 2-7-flowered cymes; pedicels 1-7 mm long. Sepals ovate, subulate, 5-6 mm long, the broad midrib green, glandular-pubescent, the membranous margins red and white, denÂticulate. Petals shorter than sepals, broadly ovate-acute, 4—5 mm long, white, pink or pale mauve. Stamens 10 with the outer filaments somewhat longer and expanded below. Ovary 5-lobed, ovoid, attenuate into the styles which are about as long as the ovary. Capsule ovoid, the valves hollow at dehiscence, thin; seeds oblong-cylindrical, 0,5 mm, tesselate, dark brown, shiny. Fig. 6: 11.
