Plants in the genus Lissanthe are small, erect to spreading shrubs with egg-shaped to oblong leaves.

Up to 17 bisexual flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branches, the 5 petals joined at the base to form a cylindrical to urn-shaped tube with triangular lobes.

Plants in the genus Lissanthe are small, erect to spreading shrubs with egg-shaped to oblong, petiolate leaves that are usually a paler shade of green on the lower surface.

The 5 petals are joined at the base to form a cylindrical to urn-shaped tube that is longer than the sepals and has triangular, valvate, glabrous lobes in the bud, and spreading to curved backwards in the open flower.

[2][3][4] The genus Lissanthe was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.