Terrestrial, perennial, prostrate subshrub. Branches hispid. Leaves (sub-)opposite, simple, harsh, scabrous; margins ±entire or slightly bluntly toothed, wavy, cartilaginous; stipules minute. Flowers solitary in axils, zygomorphic, bisexual, pedicellate, ebracteolate, positioned with the calceolus (slipper-shaped corolla) facing downward, changing orientation during development so that it is presented to the pollinator as being inverted. Sepals 5, connate for about half of their length except on adaxial side where the calyx tube is split to the base. Petals 2, basally valvate, apically imbricate, forming the calceolus, at the base developing a spur-like pocket enclosing a swollen triangular nectary gland. Androgynophore present, linear, flattened, adaxially curved, arising opposite the slit in the calyx, and overtopped by calceolus. Androecium appearing as 4 fertile anthers on a short filament on the adaxial side of flower, and (3–) 6 staminodes on the abaxial side, the staminodes lacking anthers, connected at the base to form a hood-like structure at the summit of the androgynophore. Anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Gynoecium of 3 connate carpels. Ovary superior, loculi 3; style absent; stigma small, sessile, shortly lobed. Ovule 1 per locule; placentation axile. Fruit dry, indehiscent, 1-seeded, pericarp adherent to seed. Seed reniform, more or less compressed, with thick, rugose testa and laciniate funicle; embryo conduplicate-involute; endosperm scanty.
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