Aromatic, usually gynodioecious, perennial herbs or small shrubs, dotted with glands, often mat-forming with stems creeping or decumbent and 4-angled. Lvs entire; margins often revolute. Verticels 1-many-flowered, often densely packed in a terminal head, sometimes distinct. Bracts similar or dissimilar to lvs. Calyx tube cylindric to campanulate, straight, 10-13-nerved, hairy in throat; limb usually 2-lipped with upper lip of 3 teeth and lower of 2 small, ± subulate teeth. Corolla tube included or exserted, straight; limb 2-lipped, generally hairy outside; upper lip emarginate; lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens straight, divergent, usually exserted in ☿ fls. Style gynobasic, its branches ± equal (at least in spp. in N.Z.). Nutlets smooth.