Perennial herbs, usually of small size. Leaves alternate, narrow, quite entire, often somewhat fleshy. Stipules wanting or very minute. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, in terminal spikes or rarely solitary. Calyx 4–5-lobed or -partite, imbricate. Petals 5, perigynous, inserted on the throat of the calyx, linear or spathulate, claws long, free at the base but more or less connate above, limb reflexed. Disc thin, clothing the base of the calyx-tube. Stamens 5, inserted on the edge of the disc. Ovary free, globose, 2–5-lobed, cells the same number; style single at the base, 2–5-lobed above; ovules 1 in each cell, erect, anatropous. Fruit of 2–5 globose angular or winged indehiscent 1-seeded cocci. Seed erect, with a membranous testa; albumen fleshy; embryo straight, radicle inferior.

A small order of 2 genera and 15 species. With the exception of the New Zealand plant and another found in the Philippine Islands, the whole of the species are confined to Australia.