Twining or prostrate shrub; branches slender, terete, thickened at nodes; leaves opposite, variable, oblong-elliptic, linear-lanceolate, mostly apiculate at apex, obtuse at base, dark green with white streaks above, pale or silvery white beneath, glabrous or sometimes hoary pubescent beneath; flowers very small in 5-15 flowered, subsessile, fasciculate cymes; pedicels with many ovate, imbricating bracts; calyx-lobes herbaceous, thick, glabrous outside, ovate, acute margins ciliate; corolla very small, yellow to brown, purple inside, tube very short, lobes fleshy, valvate, rotate, ovate-oblong, acuminate, coronal scales free, short, thick; stamens inserted at the base of corolla-tube; filaments free or slightly connate at base; anthers connivent by their tips over style apex; pollinia granular; stigma capitate, 5-angled; follicles 10-15 cm long, terete, smooth, slender; seeds flattened, black with long white coma.