Strong smelling herb, sometimes shrubby below; leaves petiolate, alternate, simple or compound, lobes triangular; ovate, ultimate segments various, often decompound; flowers in terminal, spreading corymbs or panicles; flowers green or yellow, actinomorphic, tetramerous, bisexual; bracts lanceolate; sepals 4-5, triangular, acute, persistent; petals 4-5, concave, imbricate, ciliate; stamens 8-10, inserted around the base of a thick 8-10 lobed, glandular or pitted disk; alternate stamens shorter; ovary 3-5 lobed, sessile, ovules pendulous; style central; stigma entire; capsule shortly pedicelled, obtuse 4-5 lobed, lobes indehiscent or dehiscent at the apex; seeds angled, embryo slightly curved with fleshy endosperm.