Annuals to subshrubs, glabrous or with papillae. Stems erect, divaricately branched. Leaves alternate, sparse, fleshy, ovate to lanceolate, somewhat flattened and auriculate at base. Bracts solitary, green, ovate, acute; bracteoles 2, keeled, broad at base. Flowers hermaphrodite, arranged along upper parts of branches and forming leafy inflorescences. Perianth 5-lobed, indurated in fruit, lobes erect, connivent in fruit, acute, with obovate-cuneate to orbicular scarious wings, arising from about middle of lobes. Stamens 5; filaments inserted on a disk, dilated at base; anthers oblong, without appendages. Ovary globular, depressed; style short, with 2 lanceolate, thick and obtuse stigmas. Fruit enclosed within the hard, bony perianth, 5-pitted at base; pericarp membranous, with sclereids. Seeds horizontal.