Epiphytic herbs or subshrubs; stems erect, ascending or decumbent, with few branches. Leaves opposite and decussate, nearly equal in a pair, lanceolate to ovate, membranous or succulent to subcoriaceous, toothed, pubescent; petiolate. Inflorescences axillary, of few to several flowers in a dense cyme; peduncles and pedicels short, bracteate. Flowers inconspicuous; calyx lobes 5, not all equal; corolla usually white with reddish upper side of tube and lobes, short, infundib-uliform, the limb 5-lobed, somewhat bilabiate; stamens 4, not exserted, the fila-ments adnate to the base of the corolla tube, the anthers coherent in 2 pairs by their apices; disc of a bibbed posterior gland; ovary superior, the stigma stomato-morphic. Fruit a white berry; seeds with a fleshy funiculus, striate. Chromo-somes n-9 (Wiehler, 1975).
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