General description:- Herbs of wet places.

Leaves:- Entire.

Flowers:- Sepals 3 or 4, membranous, obtuse, united (connate) at the base. Petals 3 or 4, membranous, spreading (patent) in terrestrial plants, closely investing ovary or occasionally absent in aquatic plants.

Fruit:- Capsule more or less globose. Seeds straight or curved.