Herbs perennial. Roots stout, fleshy; rhizomes thick, short. Stems erect, much branched. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade membranous, entire and sinuate or with a few deltate teeth. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, usually many flowered, paniculate or umbellate, usually pedunculate, rarely subsessile, mostly bracteate. Flowers actinomorphic, 5-merous. Calyx tubular-campanulate, funnelform, or tubular-urceolate. Corolla campanulate or funnelform, basally contracted cylindric, slightly oblique at limb, lobes overlapping in bud, subequal. Stamens inserted in corolla tube, mostly exserted; anthers ovate, dehiscing longitudinally. Disc fleshy, ringlike, surrounding base of ovary. Ovary 2-locular. Style mostly exserted; stigma indistinctly 2-lobed. Fruiting calyx membranous or subleathery, enveloping capsule, with 10 longitudinal ribs and obvious netted veins, mostly open. Fruit a circumscissile, oblong or globose capsule, dehiscent slightly above middle. Seeds numerous, reniform, minutely pitted; embryo coiled.
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