Shrubs, erect or clambering, unarmed, fetid when bruised. Raphides present. Leaves opposite, decussate, without domatia; stipules persistent, interpetiolar or shortly united around stem, triangular. Inflorescences terminal, cymose, paniculate, or corymbose, many flowered, pedunculate, bracteate. Flowers subsessile or sessile, bisexual, distylous. Calyx limb deeply 5-lobed. Corolla white, blue, pink, or violet, slenderly funnelform with tube prolonged, variously glabrous or pubescent inside; lobes 5, valvate in bud. Stamens 5, inserted in corolla throat, included in long-styled form, exserted in short-styled form; filaments short to developed; anthers apparently basifixed. Ovary 5-celled, ovules 1 in each cell, erect, basal, anatropous; stigma 5-lobed, included in short-styled flowers, exserted in long-styled flowers. Fruit drupaceous becoming capsular or perhaps schizocarpous, oblong-ellipsoid, dry, with valves or perhaps mericarps separating septicidally from apex, with calyx limb persistent; pyrenes or perhaps mericarps 5, 1-celled, each with 1 seed, ellipsoid; seeds medium-sized, ellipsoid-oblong or triangular; testa reticulate; embryo straight; radicle basiscopic.
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