Hiernia

Perennial undershrubs; branches opposite, rigid, spreading almost at right angles; viscid-pubescent. Leaves opposite, sessile, narrow, oblong or lanceolate, scabrid. Flowers solitary, axillary, shortly pedicellate or subsessile, ebracteolate. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 5-lobed, 10-ribbed; tube cylindrical; lobes lanceolate, shorter than tube. Corolla tubular, slightly irregular, 5-lobed; tube a little curved, funnel-shaped, +/- as long as calyx; lobes obovate, shorter than tube, spreading; 2 posterior ones somewhat united, partly or wholly interior in bud. Stamens 4, didynamous, subequal, arising +/- in middle of corolla tube, exserted; filaments filiform, slightly longer in one pair, with membranous margins; anthers linear-oblong, unithecate by abortion, dehiscing by short, apical slit, second theca represented by minute wart at apex of filament. Ovary unequally bilocular, ovoid; ovules 6-10 in 2 rows in each locule; style terete, exserted; stigma simple. Fruit a very oblique capsule, flattened laterally and grooved down each side, somewhat acute above, +/- as long as retaining calyx. Seeds subquadrate; funicle somewhat elongated and enlarged above; testa mucilaginous and swelling on wetting.