Mostly erect shrubs. Leaves sessile or petiolate, the bases sometimes stem-clasping but not sheathing, concolorous to slightly discolorous, venation usually faint on underside. Flowers bisexual, solitary, either confined to upper leaf axils or extending along the branches forming leafy inflorescences; individual flowers subtended by numerous indistinguishable bracts and bracteoles grading to the 5 sepals; corolla 5-partite, tubular or campanulate; tube shorter or longer than sepals; lobes usually spreading, imbricate in bud; filaments adnate to corolla tube, free part short; anthers enclosed in or partly exserted from corolla tube; nectary of 5 scales; ovary 5-locular, with several ovules per locule, style inserted in a depression between the carpels. Fruit a loculicidal capsule.
About 40, mostly Australian, species (all States except Western Australia and Northern Territory), 2 species also in New Zealand, 1 extending to New Caledonia.