Unarmed shrubs. Leaves and flowers borne on lateral abbreviated cushion-shoots. Stipules narrowly triangular, keeled. Inflorescences sessile at the ends of short shoots, ± 5-flowered, bracteate, the bracts presumably of stipular origin derived from suppressed internodes; pedicels obsolete; often flowering when leaves are very young. Calyx-tube cup-shaped, with limb-tube of equal length; lobes 5–6, ovate, separated by quite narrow sinuses. Corolla almost rotate, the tube very short; lobes oblong, much exceeding the tube. Anthers linear-oblong, apiculate, inserted at the throat in sinuses of corolla; filaments very short. Ovary subglobose or obconic, 2-locular; ovules 3(–4) per locule, arranged laterally on each placenta; style clavate, gradually narrowed from base to apex, winged, not divisible into two parts until very mature. Fruit small, globose, crowned with the persistent funnel-shaped calyx-limb. Seeds segment-shaped, angular, notched at middle on inner straight margin; testa glossy with very faint plane reticulation.
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