Herbs, perennial, often fetid. Roots thickened, carrot-shaped, fusiform, or tuberous, mostly fleshy, rarely lignified. Stems erect, ascending, climbing, procumbent, or twining. Leaves alternate, opposite, or fascicled (pseudoverticillate). Flowers solitary, terminal on main stems and branches, sometimes opposite to leaves, rarely axillary. Calyx tube variously adnate to ovary, often 10-ribbed; lobes 5. Corolla epigynous, 5-lobed for less than 1/2 its length and campanulate, funnelform, or tubular, or 5-fid for more than 3/4 its length and rotate, various shades of purple and blue, yellow, green, or white. Stamens 5; filaments often dilated at base, glabrous or hairy, rarely alternating with lamellar glands; anthers basifixed, connective glabrous or setose. Ovary inferior or at least inferior to corolla, 3-locular; ovules numerous; style glabrous or hairy; stigma usually 3-fid, lobes broad. Fruit with persistent calyx, an ovoid or obconic loculicidal capsule. Seeds numerous, ellipsoid, oblong, or globose, winged or wingless, smooth, faintly striate, or reticulate; embryo straight, embedded in copious endosperm.
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Perennial, erect or climbing herbs with tuberous roots. Leaves opposite, at least in part. Flowers usually large, peduncled, solitary, axillary, or in cymes on short, leafless branches. Calyx adnate to the ovary (or below it), persistent, 4-6 spreading lobes. Corolla wide-campanulate, the base adherent to the ovary, 4-6 lobes, white, greenish, or tinged purple. Stamens (4-)6, free, inserted near the base of the corolla tube on the ovary; filaments dilated at the base; anthers free. Ovary 4-6-celled; placentas axile, thick, with many ovules; style cylindric; stigmas 4-6 short and broad lobes. Fruit a berry, subglobose or cylindrical, with truncate top, indehiscent or an acutish, apically dehiscent capsule. Seeds many, small, ellipsoid.
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