Epiphytic or terrestrial shrubs. Leaves coriaceous or subcoriaceous, pin-nately veined or plinerved, petiolate. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, subfas-ciculate, racemose or paniculate with few to many flowers borne on deciduously bibracteolate pedicels articulated with the flowers or rarely continuous (in one South American section). Flowers with the hypanthium short cylindric or campanulate, wingless or occasionally narrowly 5-angled to the sinuses (South America); calyx limb erect to slightly spreading distally, the lobes 5, triangular, subacute; corolla subcylindric, occasionally 5-angulate, the lobes 5, triangular or oblong, subacute; stamens 10, equal, often nearly as long as the corolla, the filaments distinct (Central America) or connate (some South American species), the anthers dorsally attached near the bases, firm or membranous, the thecae smooth or slightly granular, the tubules as long as the anther sacs or rarely twice as long, opening by elongate introrse clefts; style filiform, as long as the corolla or slightly exserted; ovary inferior. Fruit a berry.
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