Herbs annual or perennial, sometimes with tuberous roots, usually viscid pubescent with uniseriate glandular hairs. Leaves opposite, alternate on upper parts of stem, simple, without stipules. Inflorescences terminal racemes; bracts small, deciduous; bractlets 1 or 2. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic. Calyx of 5 free or partly connate sepals. Corolla tubular, campanulate, or funnelform, laterally enlarged, bilabiate; lobes 5, imbricate. Stamens 2 or 4, inserted at base of corolla tube, adherent; anthers spreading. Disc annular. Ovary superior, 1-locular; parietal placentas T-shaped in section, false septa usually present; ovules few to numerous. Fruit with a fleshy exocarp soon disintegrating and exposing woody endocarp, with woody appendages including apical horns partly derived from style. Seeds black, rugose.

Three or four genera and 17-20 species: tropical and subtropical parts of America; one species naturalized in China.

Tao Deding. 1990. Martyniaceae. In: Wang Wentsai, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 69: 67-68.

(Authors: Zhang Zhi-yun; Heidrun E. K. Hartmann)