Small erect shrubs, invariably turning blackish on drying and with distinctly discolorous leaves. Leaves very shortly petiolate, elliptic to lanceolate, rather thick, closely placed, the lateral nerves invisible or very obscure; stipule sheath usually hairy, divided into several subulate fimbriae. Flowers heterostylous, small, in many-flowered dense terminal corymbs or panicles. Calyx-lobes 4, triangular or lanceolate, often with fimbriae between. Corolla shortly subcylindrical, slightly widened above; lobes 4; throat glabrous or sparsely hairy inside. Stamens well exserted in short-styled flowers. Ovary 2-locular; ovules few on peltate placentas; style filiform; stigma-lobes subglobose. Capsule depressed hemispherical, produced into a conical beak which splits loculicidally and septicidally into 4 diverging valves. Seeds few, much compressed, elliptic or oblong, sometimes subangular and often slightly winged at both ends or all round, reticulate.