Perennial, succulent herbs or undershrubs with bristly hairs; stem erect, herbaceous, often branched, glabrous or obscurely pubescent, slightly succulent; leaves few, alternate, auricled, unequal sided, entire, toothed or lobed, pilose on upper surface and on nerves beneath; stipules lanceolate, glabrous, deciduous, persistent; petioles long, hairy; flowers showy, small, white to pink in short cymes, axillary, dichotomous, many flowered, densely pubescent peduncled; bracts narrow, lanceolate or linear; in male flowers: sepals 2, large, glabrous, nearly white; petals-2, usually smaller than sepals, white to pink or so; stamens numerous, free or monadelphous, anthers obovoid, inner obovate, pubescent to glabrous, stamens forming a globose mass; in female flowers; sepals and petals as in male flowers; ovary inferior, ovules many on axile placenta; stigma thick, spreading or twisted; styles 2-6; fruit loculicidal, dehiscent; capsule 3-angled, 3-winged; seeds many, ovoid, minute.