Plants perennial herbs, shrubs, or tree. Leaves usually alternate, sometimes opposite, often ericoid. Inflowers bracteate heads. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous; calyx tubes cylindrical, usually articulated above the ovaries, upper portion falling off after flowering, lobes shorter than the tubes; petals alternating with the calyx lobes, often inconspicuous or lacking; stamens in 1 or 2 whorls, often shorly exserted; disks present, cup-shaped or lobed, sometimes lacking; ovaries 1-celled; styles lateral or sublatera. Fruits small, dry, enclosed by the peristen base of the calyx- tube.
Lasiosiphon has been included in Gnidia, but Beaumont et al (2009) argued for its reinstatement, with some modifications. Its members differ from Gnidia in having many-flowered inflorescences that are always surrounded by a leafy involucre and flowers that are 5-, not 4-merous.