Trees or shrubs, the branches often conspicuously lenticellate. Leaves alter-nate, (1-)3-foliolate, the lamina elliptic to obovate, membranous to coriaceous, pellucid punctate, usually glabrous, the petiole often short, semiterete, usually narrowly winged. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, corymbose to paniculate, few to many flowered, the peduncles often long. Flowers fragrant, often showy, bisexual, 5-merous; calyx short campanulate to tubular, the lobes rarely distinct, erect, usually acute at the apex; corolla connate, several to many times longer than the calyx, the tube straight to slightly arcuate, cylindric, often narrowly so, the lobes imbricate in aestivation; stamens 5 to 8, fertile stamens usually 2, fertile anthers introrse, erect, longitudinally dehiscent, basifixed, staminodea linear, the filaments united in a tube coherent with the corolla tube; ovary usually globose to ellipsoid, subtended and partially enclosed in a cupular nectary, 4-5 carpellate, ovules 2, collateral, one slightly superposed, the style filiform, the stigma 3-5 lobed. Capsules 5-locular, oblong to subglobose, the individual segments connate basally, carinate, endocarp usually cartilaginous, bivalvate; seeds laterally com-pressed; embryo curved to uncinate with little or no albumen, radicle retracted between the cotylendons.
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