Shrubs or trees, glabrous. Leaves alternate or subopposite, often grouped to-wards the apex of the branchlets, the petioles short, the stipules small and decidu-ous, the blade often repand-serrate. Inflorescences of long-pedunculate cymes, these few-fasciculate laterally or at the apex of the branchlets. Flowers slightly zygo-morphic, the pedicels articulate; sepals unequal, the 2 outer ones 1/2-1/3 smaller than the 2 inner ones; petals free, unguiculate, the anterior petal ca twice as broad as the others and usually emarginate at the apex, white, yellowish, lilac or blue; filaments bearing dorsal, erect, carnose, glandular appendages united into a low tube, the connective scales more or less long and scarious; ovary with 3 placentae, the ovules numerous, the style filiform, erect, the stigma somewhat enlarged, truncate and inconspicuously denticulate. Capsules 3-valvate, the valves eymbiform, the lignous-cartilaginous endocarp separating from the exocarp; seeds with the testa coriaceous, the endosperm carnose.
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