Shrublets , shrubs , or herbs. Stems striate or reduced to a caudex . Leaves simple , alternate or basal, sessile or petiolate but petiole usually indistinct from blade ; stipules absent; leaf blade entire or rarely pinnately lobed , with chalk glands on both surfaces. Inflorescences terminal or axillary , unbranched or branched, spicate , spicate-racemose, subcapitate , capitate, or paniculate , arranged into complanate spikes if branched, all composed of 1--10 or more cymules or helicoid cymes; cymules or helicoid cymes usually known as spikelets , 1--5-flowered; bracts 1 at base of each spikelet; bractlets 1 or 2 at base of each flower. Flowers bisexual , actinomorphic , sessile or very shortly pedicellate . Calyx persistent , hypogynous, tubular to funnelform , 5-ribbed, 5-lobed. Corolla hypogynous, petals connate but sometimes only at base, lobes or segments 5 and twisted. Stamens opposite corolla lobes, hypogynous or inserted at corolla base; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally. Pistil 1. Ovary superior, 1-locular. Styles 5, free or connate. Stigmas 5. Ovule 1, pendulous from a basal funicle. Capsules usually enclosed within calyx. Seeds 1 per capsule; embryo straight, surrounded by thin starchy endosperm.