Low shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate but occasionally appearing sub-opposite, petiolate, coriaceous, plinerved or pinnatinerved, entire. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, with several to many flowers; floral bracts solitary at base of pedicel, to 20 mm long but usually small and inconspicuous; pedicels either naked or more typically bibracteolate, continuous with the flower. Flowers with the hypanthium prismatic, broadening distally and winged opposite the sinuses; calyx limb suberect, the lobes 5, lanceolate triangular; corolla subcylindric, cylindric urceolate or subglobose, broadly 5-winged opposite the lobes, the lobes triangular, subacute; stamens 10, equal, nearly as long as the corolla, the filaments equal, membranous, distinct or basally slightly connate or connate for half their length, the anthers dorsifixed, membranous with smooth thecae, the tubules usually longer than the anther sacs and opening by short to elongate, introrse clefts; ovary inferior, the stigma truncate, the style filiform, about as long as the corolla, basally surrounded by an annular or cupuliform disc. Fruit a berry with numerous small seeds.
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