Small shrubs or herbs. Leaves simple, hairy, margin serrate. Flowers axillary, solitary or in short racemes. Epicalyx lobes (2 or)3, cordate or reniform, usually longer than sepals, persistent. Calyx 5-divided. Petals 5, enclosing ovary and persistent. Filament tube cup-shaped, very short; 5 tongue-shaped staminodes alternating with 5 stamens. Ovary sessile, 5-loculed; ovules 1 to many per locule; style subulately 5-branched. Capsule 5, dehiscent. Seeds with endosperm; cotyledons plicate, 2-lobed at apex.

About 60 species: primarily in Africa, C Asia, Australia, and Madagascar; one species in China.