Shrubs, subshrubs, or perennial herbs, with cystoliths, usually spiny. Leaves opposite, petiolate. Inflorescences axillary cymes (sometimes secund or reduced to dense clusters), terminal spikes, or flowers solitary; bracts present or absent; bracteoles 2, sometimes becoming spinose. Calyx deeply 4-lobed; outer 2 lobes larger [anterior lobe sometimes 2-cleft]; inner 2 lobes smaller. Corolla funnel-shaped, usually large; limb 5-lobed (usually with upper lip appearing 4-lobed); lobes subequal, quincuncial in bud. Stamens [2 or]4 and didynamous, one pair usually greatly reduced and/or sterile; anthers 2-thecous; thecae ± equal in size, equally inserted, lacking basal appendages; staminodes 1 or 3, sometimes bearing very small anthers. Ovary with 2 ovules per locule; stigma 2-cleft or entire. Capsule substipitate or lacking a distinct basal stalk, subellipsoid to ovoid, 2-4-seeded; retinacula present. Seeds discoid, pubescent with appressed hygroscopic trichomes.

Barleria procumbens Loureiro (Fl. Cochinch. 2: 377. 1790) is not treated here because no material was available for study. Barleria lupulina Lindley is only cultivated in China and not treated here.

About 80-120 species: tropical regions of Africa and Asia, one species in tropical America; four species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Hu Jiaqi (胡嘉琪 Hu Chia-chi), Deng Yunfei (邓云飞); Thomas F. Daniel)