Perennial or rarely annual (not in Australia), herbs or shrubs, often semi-aquatic, glabrous or glandular-pubescent, sometimes with axillary spines (not in Australia). Leaves alternate, simple, entire or serrulate; stipules absent. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, racemose or cymose, rarely flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic. Sepals 5 basally connate, persistent in fruit. Corolla campanulate to rotate. Nectary disc absent or present. Petals 5, basally connate, blue or white, rarely purple. Stamens 5, alternate with petals; filaments free, filiform, abruptly dilated at base, inserted on short corolla tube at base filiform; anthers tetrasporangiate, dithecal, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Gynoecium of 2 (–4) connate carpels, diagonal. Ovary superior, usually 2-locular; styles 2–4, separate, spreading, persistent in fruit; stigma funneliform or capitate. Ovules numerous; placentation axile. Fruit a capsule dehiscing septicidally, loculicidally or irregularly; pericarp thin. Seeds longitudinally ridged and reticulate.
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