Herbs, annual or winter annual. Taproots slender. Stems erect or spreading-ascending, simple or few-branched basally, terete. Leaves connate basally into sheath, sessile; blade 1-veined, narrowly oblong, not succulent, apex acute. Inflorescences axillary, flowers borne singly at alternate nodes; bracts paired at upper nodes, foliaceous. Pedicels: flowers sessile. Flowers: perianth and androecium perigynous; hypanthium green or reddish, cup-shaped, 10-veined, commisural veins branched ca. at base of sepals; sepals 5, connate proximally ca. 1 mm, green or reddish, 3-veined (lateral pair 1/8 length of midvein), triangular-ovate, margins white, scarious, apex acute; petals absent; nectaries unknown; stamens 5, arising between sepals; filaments distinct; staminodes 5, alternating with stamens, scalelike; styles 3, filiform, ca. 0.3 mm, without stiff hairs proximally; stigmas 3, linear along adaxial surface, minutely papillate (50×). Capsules ovoid, opening by 3 apical, spreading valves; carpophore absent. Seeds ca. 30(-60), yellowish green to brown, translucent, elliptic to ovoid, reniform, slightly laterally compressed, muriculate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent.