Much branched herbs or under shrubs, up to 3 m high; leaves alternate, lanceolate, more or less villous; petioles upto 1 cm long; flowers solitary, axillary, yellow; bracts inconspicuous or foliaceous; calyx tubular, quadrangular, scarcely produced above the ovary; sepals-4, ovate or lanceolate, persistent; petals 4, yellow, broadly obovate; stamens-8, epipetalous, filaments short, anthers oblong; ovary 4-celled; style simple; stigma capitate; ovules 1 or many in each cell, placenta axile; capsules thin-walled, linear, terete, membranous not woody, pale brown with 8 darker ribs; seeds subhemispheric, pluriseriate in each cell, free, brown.