Erect, dichotomously branched, annual herbs. Leaves opopite, sessile or shortly petiolate, entire, mucronate; stipules minute, subulate with setaceous margins. Inflorescence a 3-flowered pedunculate cyme. Flowers perigynous, sessile to subsessile, lateral flowers sterile, the central one fertile; bracteate, bracts feathery (becoming large & squarrose). Sepals 5, erect, linear-oblong, margins membranous, awned outside below the apex, persistent. Petals 5, free, mem¬branous, white, shorter than the sepals. Stamens 5, free, filaments united at the base with petals forming a cup ; anthers oblong. Carpels 3, syncarpous ovary ovoid-lanceolate, unilocular, 1-ovuled; style curved, filiform, exserted, trifid, stigmas 3. Fruit one seeded indehiscent utricle covered by the persistent sepals. Seed obovoid, erect.
2 species; distributed in deserts of N.E. Africa, Abyssinia to W. Pakistan.
