Erect shrubs, unarmed, usually fetid when bruised. Raphides present. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3 or 4, sometimes with domatia; stipules caducous or persistent, interpetiolar, triangular, entire or 1-3-setose or multifid. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, fasciculate or cymose and several flowered or reduced to 1 flower, pedunculate to sessile, bracteate with bracts usually fused in pairs. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, bisexual, apparently monomorphic. Calyx limb 4-6-lobed, sometimes funnelform, lobes sometimes unequal. Corolla white, campanulate, tubular, or funnelform, inside villous in throat; lobes 4(-6), valvate-induplicate in bud, with margins sometimes crisped. Stamens 4(-6), inserted in corolla throat, usually partially exserted; filaments short or reduced; anthers dorsifixed near base. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 in each cell, basal, erect; style 2-lobed, included or exserted. Fruit blue or purplish black, drupaceous, fleshy, ellipsoid, with calyx limb persistent; pyrenes 1 or 2, 1-celled, with 1 seed, crustaceous to papery; seeds medium-sized, plano-convex, subobovoid, or ellipsoid, abaxially (i.e., dorsally) smooth to verrucose, endosperm fleshy; cotyledon tiny, leaflike; radicle slender, close to hilum.
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