Shrubs, climbers, or small trees, mostly spiny. Branches dichotomous. Leaves opposite; petiole 2-3 mm. Cymes terminal or axillary, dichotomous, pedunculate, usually many flowered. Flowers 5- [or 4]-merous. Calyx without glands or rarely with many basal glands inside. Corolla salverform, tube cylindric, dilated at staminal insertion, lobes overlapping to left or to right. Stamens included in throat; anthers lanceolate, obtuse or apiculate, base not appendaged; disc absent. Ovary 2-loculed; ovules 1-4 in each locule, rarely numerous, biseriate. Style filiform; pistil head narrowly oblong or fusiform, apex shortly 2-cleft. Berries 1- or 2-loculed. Seeds 2 or more, peltate; endosperm fleshy; cotyledons ovate, radicle inferior.

About 30 species: tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia, and Australia; four species in China.