Perennial subshrubs, mat-or cushion-forming. Leaves cauline, sessile, imbricate; stipules reduced to a connate sheath. Flowers solitary, terminal; pedicels straight, rigid, becoming ±woody. Perianth 4-merous. Calyx foliaceous, dimorphous, with 1 pair of sepals or lobes usually larger; sepals in 1 series and gamosepalous or in 2 series of 2 decussate pairs; colleters present in S. archeri. Corolla white; lobes valvate or imbricate. Stamens inserted at sinuses, ±included; anthers almost sessile, apiculate. Ovary superior; placenta axile-apical, peltate, elongating in fruit, extending along the upper wall of the locule; ovules several. Styles 2. Fruit capsular, persistent, woody, flattened in plane at 90° to septum, loculicidal. Seeds several, ellipsoidal.
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