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Shrubs or small trees, sometimes vine-like in habit, the indumentum commonly of stellate hairs. Leaves petiolate, the stipules caducous, the blade entire to vari-ously lobed. Flowers solitary in the axils or sometimes clustered at the apex of the branches, the pedicels short to elongate; epicalyx of 6-16 linear, lanceolate or spatu-late bractlets; calyx campanulate, usually 5-lobed, variously pubescent; corolla funnelform, the 5 asymmetrically obovate-cuneate petals twisted, short-unguiculate, auriculate on one side at the base; staminal tube slender, usually long-exserted, 5-lobed at the apex, the anthers clustered below the apex; ovary 5-carpellate, each carpel 1-ovulate; style branches 10, the stigmas capitate. Fruits with an outer fleshy envelope, becoming dry, the 5 carpels usually separating at full maturity, stony, indehiscent, 1-seeded.
Shrubs [trees], in M. arboreus var. drummondii forming dense clones propagated by root proliferation. Stems erect, hairy or glabrous, not viscid. Leaves: stipules deciduous, linear or subulate; blade elliptic to broadly ovate, unlobed or 3–5-lobed, base rounded to cordate, stigmas capitate. Fruits schizocarpic berries, erect [pendent], not inflated, oblate, fleshy, glabrous; mericarps 5, 1-celled, without dorsal spur, indehiscent. Seeds 1 per mericarp, ellipsoid wedge-shaped, glabrous. x = 14.
Shrubs. Lvs toothed or lobed. Fls axillary and solitary or fascicled, or in terminal racemes or heads; epicalyx segments 6-16, united at least in part; calyx 5-toothed; petals ± closed. Style branches twice as many as loculi, clavate. Fr. of 5, indehiscent mericarps enclosed in a fleshy envelope.
