Plants small erect shrubs, younger branches sometimes twining; sap clear. Leaves opposite, on contracted shoots or new growth. Inflorescences with few flowers. Flowers very small; corolline corollas absent; gynostegial coronas of 5 distinct, fleshy staminal lobes, never exceeding the gynostegia; anther connectives with apical appendages; pollinaria with a pair of pendent pollinia; stigmatic heads flat or conical. Follicles single, thin-walled; seeds smooth, winged, with a tuft of hairs at one end.
Blyttia includes only 2 specis. They grown in East Africa and Arabia.