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Shrubs, trees, or vines, <climbing by adventitious roots>. Branchlets terete or 4-angled. Leaves deciduous or persistent, opposite; stipules present; petiole present; blade margins entire or toothed; venation pinnate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cymes. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; perianth and androecium hypogynous; hypanthium absent; sepals 4–5, distinct; petals 4–5, white, green, yellow, red, or purple; nectary intrastaminal, annular, fleshy; stamens 4–5, adnate to nectary margin; staminodes 0; pistil 4–5-carpellate; ovary superior, 4–5-locular, placentation axile; style 1; stigma 1; ovules 2 per locule. Fruits capsules, (1–)2–5-locular, globose, subglobose, or obovoid, unlobed or 2–5-lobed, apex not beaked. Seeds 2 per locule, ellipsoid, ovoid, or subglobose, not winged; aril yellow, orange, or red, completely surrounding seed. x = 16.
Shrubs, sometimes small trees, ascending or clambering, evergreen or deciduous, glabrous, rarely pubescent. Leaves opposite, rarely also alternate or whorled, entire, serrulate, or crenate, stipulate. Inflorescences axillary, occasionally terminal, cymose. Flowers bisexual, 4(or 5)-merous; petals light yellow to dark purple. Disk fleshy, annular, 4-or 5-lobed, intrastaminal or stamens on disk; anthers longitudinally or obliquely dehiscent, introrse. Ovary 4-or 5-locular; ovules erect to pendulous, 2(-12) per locule. Capsule globose, rugose, prickly, laterally winged or deeply lobed, occasionally only 1-3 lobes developing, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds 1 to several, typically 2 developing, ellipsoid; aril basal to enveloping seed.
Fls perfect, 4–6-merous, small, solitary or cymose in the axils; pet widely spreading; stamens very short, inserted at the margin of the broad disk, in which the 3–5-locular ovary is largely immersed; ovules 2–6 per locule, ± ascending; stigma sessile, 3–5-lobed; fr colored, capsular, often 3–5-lobed, with 1–6 seeds per locule, each seed covered by a red or orange aril; shrubs or small trees, prostrate to erect, sometimes climbing by adventitious roots; twigs often 4-angled, sometimes winged; lvs opposite, deciduous in our native spp. 200+, cosmop. Several cult. spp. that only occasionally escape are included in the key, but not numbered or described.
Small trees or shrubs, bisexual. Leaves opposite, rarely (not in Australia) otherwise; stipules present, caducous. Flowers in axillary cymes, rarely (not in Australia) in fascicles; pedicels articulate. Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate. Petals 4 or 5, imbricate. Disc present, angular, lobed or rounded. Stamens as many as petals and alternate with them, inserted on disc margin or inside; anthers latrorse or introrse. Ovary partly or wholly immersed in disc, 3-5-locular with 2-8 ovules per locule in two rows, attached to inner angle near base or pendulous; style 1; stigma 1. Fruit a capsule; columella present or absent. Seeds 1-several per locule, arillate.
Evergreen or deciduous, shrubs or small trees, occasionally creeping or ascending by rootlets. Lvs usually opposite, petiolate, glabrous. Fls 4-5-merous, in axillary cymes. Fr. a 4-5-celled capsule, usually lobed or winged. Seeds 0-2 per cell, usually covered by a brightly coloured fleshy aril.
