Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves palmately lobed or divided (rarely almost entire). Flowers solitary, axillary or in terminal racemes by reduction of the upper leaves. Epicalyx of 6–numerous filiform or linear bracteoles or much reduced and very caducous. Calyx thin, splitting laterally, circumscissile, slightly joined to the base of the corolla and deciduous with it. Staminal tube as in Hibiscus. Ovary 5-locular, loculi pluriovulate; style not manifestly branched, with 5 sessile or subsessile capitate stigmas. Capsule elongated, oblong or ellipsoid. Seeds with minute stellate hairs and sometimes also pilose.