Herbs annual. Stem erect, branched from base, covered with ramified hairs, becoming glabrous. Leaves alternate, sessile or petiolate; leaf blade flattened, linear to lanceolate or ovate, base attenuate or rounded-cuneate, margin entire, apex mucronate; veins 3 to numerous. Inflorescence a bracteate spike; bracts imbricate, base broad, apex aristate, reflexed; bractlets absent. Flowers solitary in bract axils, sessile, bisexual. Perianth segments 1-5, free, white, oblong or lanceolate, membranous, apex erose. Stamens 1-5; filaments flattened, united only at base; anthers oblong. Ovary sessile, ovoid, compressed; style short; stigmas 2, filiform. Utricle cylindric to subglobose, sometimes with lateral wings, apex with a 2-fid beak; pericarp free from testa. Seed vertical, globose or ellipsoid, compressed; embryo annular; radicle inferior; perisperm copious.

Five or six species: C and SW Asia; three species in China.