Pentodon Hochst.

Glabrous subsucculent annual or short-lived perennial herbs with slender rootstocks. Leaves paired, sessile, penninerved but lateral nerves obscure; stipules with the short sheath divided into (1–)2–5 narrow fimbriae. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, dimorphic or not, in few–several-flowered very lax pedunculate terminal or apparently axillary (solitary at the nodes) inflorescences which appear to be verticillate, with 1–4 flowers from 1–4 widely spaced nodes. Calyx-tube obconic or campanulate; lobes 5, equal, very narrowly triangular. Corolla-tube narrowly funnel-shaped, throat hairy; lobes 5, ovate-triangular. Stamens exserted in short-styled forms, included in long-styled and equal-styled forms. Ovary 2-locular; placentas peltate with numerous ovules; style filiform, glabrous; stigma 2-lobed, the lobes filiform, included in short-styled forms, often exserted in equal-styled forms, exserted in long-styled forms. Fruit capsular, campanulate or oblong, the beak only slightly raised, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds small, numerous, brown, angular.