Shrubs, not rarely epiphytic, often with thick roots and/or swollen base. Leaves spiral, persistent, entire or ciliate-serrate or-crenate; axillary buds sometimes reduced to stipule-like perulae. Flowers axillary or from defoliate axils, solitary or in fascicles, small. Pedicels bracteolate at the base, with 2 apical persistent bracteoles ± connate into a calyculus. Calyx deeply 5 (rarely 4)-toothed or-lobed, free or half-inferior, persistent, becoming ± fleshy and accrescent in later stages, mostly completely including the capsule at maturity, rarely incompletely so. Corolla campanulate to urceolate, rarely cylindric or subglobose, not rarely rather fleshy, with 5 (rarely 4) slightly imbricate, erect or recurved lobes, early caducous. Stamens 10 (rarely 8), mostly as long as the corolla or slightly exserted, rarely shorter than the corolla, inserted at the base of the corolla. Anthers introrse, dorsiflx, anther-cells oblong to ovate, with 2 deep longitudinal grooves, irregularly 4-lobed at the base, mostly very granular, produced at the apex into 2 short (and rather broad) or mostly elongate (and slender) straight tubules, dehiscing by ± oblique short or prolonged slits; neither apical nor dorsal appendages. Filaments mostly linear, flat, sometimes disk-like dilated above the base and S-curved. Disk cupular, 10(-8)-lobed, pressed against the ovary. Ovary superior or half-inferior, 5(-4)-celled, with numerous ovules on the thick placentas. Style filiform; stigma simple. Capsule thin-walled, opening late, regularly or somewhat irregularly, completely filled with the seeds, included to various degree by the accrescent ± succulent calyx. Seeds minute, cuneate irregularly; testa laxly reticulate; albumen fleshy; embryo axile, cylindric.
Most species are found in the montane forest, especially in the mossy forest and in summit scrub. A few live in open rocky places above the timber line, and attain 3960 m close to the summit of Mt Kinabalu, and 3650 m in New Guinea (Hagen Mts).
Home