Trees or shrubs; branches glabrous. Lateral branches mostly up to c. 1 cm high coalescent with the main branch (Fig. 34i). Stipules interpetiolar, adnate to the petioles, obdeltoid, in older leaves often split along a distinct suture. Leaves petioled to subsessile; midrib often forked towards the apex, venation obscure. Inflorescences terminal, thyrsoid, the ends cincinnate; bracts semi-amplexicaulous, scale-to ridge-like, minute, ciliate. Flowers sessile, 5-merous. Sepals confluent at base, suborbicular, mostly ciliate, inside at the base often with hairs and/or colleters. Corolla rotate to salver-shaped, white, tube thin-fleshy, the valvate lobes thicker; with a hair ring in the mouth, inner surface of the tube either glabrous or hairy. Stamens inserted on the upper half of the corolla-tube, usually just below the mouth, included; filaments strap-shaped, usually very short, glabrous; anthers introrse, 2-celled, cells up to about halfway free, the apices mostly, the bases sometimes ending in a short sterile tip, the latter often, the former rarely bearded. Pistil mostly glabrous; ovary 2-celled with ∞ ovules on a strongly thickened placenta; style early caducous; stigma always about reaching the mouth, mostly ± ellipsoid, 0.5-0.75 mm high, faintly grooved, hollow (in N. sarcantha broadly truncate). Fruits drupaceous, mesocarp dry, rather hard and very fibrous, these fibres originating from the woody, rugose stone; cells slenderly spindle-shaped, slightly curved. Seed one per cell (and usually only one per fruit), slenderly spindle-shaped.
Shrubs or small to medium-sized trees in the undergrowth or substage of primary, rarely secondary forests, rarely canopy trees, often in marshy or temporarily drained localities, largely confined to everwet lowland. The clustered, small, white, scented flowers probably attract insects. Once it has been stated that the fruits were eagerly eaten by pigeons, but the rather dry, thick, corky mesocarp and the hard pyrene make the impression that they are normally dispersed by water.
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