Fls 5-merous, axillary, solitary, sessile or shortly peduncled. Bracts ∞, imbricate, investing peduncle. Staminal filaments short, inserted on corolla-tube; anthers not or hardly exserted. Disk hypog., us. of 5 free scales. Ovules ∞, attached to a central placenta; capsule loculicidally dehiscent, seeds ∞. Mostly erect rather rigid shrubs with subsessile crowded lvs. Some 50 mostly Australian spp., with a few in Tasmania, N.Z., New Caledonia. The N.Z. sp. endemic.

Shrubs, ± erect, often rigidly so. Lvs sessile or shortly petiolate, scattered or closely imbricate, sometimes amplexicaul and articulate but not sheathing. Fls solitary, axillary, on short peduncle invested by bracts, either aggregated towards the shoot apex or spread along the branches. Bracts becoming sepal-like and often forming an involucre around the 5 sepals. Corolla lobes 5, spreading, usually < tube. Stamens 5, epipetalous, included or slightly exserted. Ovary 5-locular; placentation axile, with numerous ovules; style inserted in a ± tubular depression in the ovary. Capsule loculicidally dehiscent, the 5 valves separating from central placenta. Seeds numerous.