Saltera

Shrublets or shrubs, erect or ascending, sparingly branched; branchlets 4-ridged. Leaves imbricate, entire, coriaceous, with or without a dark areola. Flowers 1-7, terminal, sessile, usually bracteate and usually in small, capitate spikes; bracts: lowest larger than leaves, denticulate-fimbriate, with or without apical gland and with sticky secretion. Perianth: tube cylindric, rose or purple, seldom white; lobes +/- a third as long as tube, becoming reflexed. Stamens: filaments erect, linear, +/- as long as the elliptic-oblong connective; anthers +/- oblong, slightly shorter than connective, with shortly papillate fissure margins. Ovary sessile, smooth, with 4 ascending ovules in each locule; style slender; stigma capitate, quadrangular, relatively large. x = 10 (1 report, polyploidy).