Annual or short-lived perennial herbs, often branched, prostrate or erect, glabrous or hairy. Leaves entire, linear to elliptic, flat or undulate. Flowers densely racemose, white; pedicels bracteate at the base. Calyx 5-partite. Petals 5, deciduous, inserted at the base of the disc, simple or laciniate, dilated inside at the base of the limb into a membranous appendage. Disc elevated, patelliform, fleshy, adaxially dilated. Stamens 10–15, inserted on the disc; filaments papillose or hispid; anthers declinate, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary stipitate on the disc, of 5–6 whorled carpels, connate at the base; ovules numerous, clustered at the carpel-bases. Follicles open, spreading stellately, ciliate-hispid on the margins. Seeds few.
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