Stems usually very slender, under 0·5 mm. in diam. Inflorescences rather loose umbellate clusters. Flowers 2–3·5 mm. long on short pedicels, thin in texture, sometimes 4-merous, shining and yellowish when dry, often glandular. Calyx campanulate-turbinate; lobes triangular-ovate, acuminate often exceeding and enclosing the corolla, erect to reflexed. Corolla campanulate, becoming globular about the developing fruit; lobes narrow and very acute, erect or spreading and reflexed in old flowers, usually longer than the tube. Stamens shorter than the corolla lobes; filaments somewhat stout, as long or longer than anthers. Scales absent. Ovary globose, more or less depressed; styles slender, as long as or longer than the ovary, somewhat unequal. Capsule depressed-globose, irregularly splitting near the base; intrastylar opening small with a longitudinal groove from each end running down the capsule. Seeds ovoid, about 1·5 m. long.