Trees or shrubs, the buds often perulate. Leaves opposite or subopposite, petiolate, the stipules usually represented by crateriform glands, sometimes fully developed and with similar glands at the base or provided with extrafloral nectaries; blade rigid-chartaceous to coriaceous, the midvein prominent on the lower surface. Inflorescences of axillary, few-flowered cincinni, or terminal and axillary, thyrsoid and with cincinni or infrequently dichasia as partial inflorescences, sometimes flowers axillary and solitary. Flowers with the calyx lobes unequal, one of the lateral lobes (the fourth lobe) larger than the others and usually spurred at the base, the spur sometimes saccate, the other lobes varying in size but always smaller, the lobes lateral to the spurred one (the first and second ones) usually the smallest; corolla variously colored, the petal 1, alternating with the third and fifth sepals, well developed, membranous; stamen opposite the fifth sepal, the anther basi-or dorsifixed; staminodes often present, small; ovary superior, densely pilose, 3-locular, the ovules biseriate, up to 12 per locule. Capsules with rounded or obtuse angles, 3-celled, the pericarp ligneous; seeds few per cell, alate, the wing unilateral, consisting of numerous,-long hairs inserted on the chartaceous testa.
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