Shrubs, usually with a white or pale grey indumentum of stellate hairs. Stipules leafy, a line or 0. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate, often discolorous, green above and whitish beneath; lamina entire, crenate or dentate or sometimes lobed. Inflorescence terminal and/or axillary, thyrsoid, paniculate or variously reduced, even to a spherical head. Flowers 4-merous, actinomorphic. Fruit a capsule. Seeds winged in some species.