Lianas, rarely erect shrubs. Leaves opposite or subopposite, glabrous, with fine parallel nerves; margins somewhat reflexed. Inflorescences umbelliform or paniculiform, few-flowered, usually on the terminal part of the lateral branchlets, rarely axillary; bracts 2, rarely 3 or 4, discoloured, opposite or alternate. Flowers cylindric, lobes 5, imbricate, then spreading; pedicels articulated at the base. Petaloid appendages 10, long club-shaped or filiform, inserted at the throat of the tube. Stamens twice as many as the calyx lobes, unequal in length, free from the tube at the throat; filaments long and slender, usually exserted, broadened into the connective; anthers oblong, slightly separated by the connective except at the top. Disk obscure, sometimes just a short toothed ring at the base of the ovary. Ovary stipitate, oblong or slightly obovate-oblong, densely hairy; style long, filiform; stigma capitate. Fruits ovoid or globose, surrounded by the cleft base of the floral tube; pericarp red, crustaceous. Seeds of the same shape as the fruit; testa membranous.
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