Lelya

Prostrate perennial herbs. Leaves paired, small, shortly petiolate; stipules in lower part of stem with sheath produced into an undivided triangular lobe, in upper part deeply bifid into narrowly triangular fimbriae or less often with 3 fimbriae. Flowers small, bisexual, dimorphic, in terminal triads or sometimes solitary. Calyx: tube ovoid or ellipsoid; lobes 4, equal, oblong-elliptic or oblong-spathulate, rather thick, exceeding tube, joined at base to form a free tube. Corolla: tube shortly cylindric or narrowly funnel-shaped, sparsely pilose inside; lobes 4, elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate. Stamens completely exserted in short-styled forms. Ovary 2-locular, with peltate placentas and 8 to fairly many ovules; style stoutly filiform, minutely bifid at apex, stigma-lobes short, subglobose or ellipsoid. Fruit capsular with bony walls, ellipsoid, produced into a solid beak; at length apically loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds few per locule, blackish, angular, pitted.