Herbs or shrublets, erect or creeping to ascending. Stems terete or 4-sided. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade secondary veins 1-3(or 4) on each side of midvein, tertiary veins parallel, margin denticulate, serrate, or almost entire. Inflorescences terminal, few-flowered cymes, cymose panicles, or rarely umbellate cymes; bract small, frequently caducous. Flowers (3 or)4-merous. Hypanthium funnel-shaped, turbinate, or nearly campanulate. Calyx lobes conspicuous. Petals pink to purplish red, ovate to broadly ovate, sometimes slightly oblique, apex acute, acuminate, or retuse. Stamens dimorphic, twice as many as petals, unequal in length; filaments filiform; anthers dimorphic, subulate, linear-subulate, or oblong-linear. Longer stamens usually without tuberculate base; connective decurrent, slightly prolonged. Ovary half inferior, turbinate, 4-celled. Style filiform; stigma apiculate. Capsule turbinate, usually obtusely 4-sided, woody, apex truncate but with crown usually exserted from calyx; calyx lobes usually persistent. Seed numerous, very minute, cuneate, densely granulate.
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