Herbs, perennial, terrestrial or epipetric, rhizomatous, stemless. Leaves 1 to few, basal; leaf blade glabrous or nearly so, base broadly cuneate to truncate or cordate. Inflorescences lax, axillary, few- to many-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from near base; segments equal. Corolla purple, actinomorphic, inside glabrous; tube rotate, not swollen, ca. 1/2 length of limb, 5-10 mm in diam.; limb 5-lobed, lobe apex acute to rounded. Stamens 5, adnate to corolla near base, exserted; anthers dorsifixed, connate into a tube surrounding style, thecae parallel, not confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective with long apical projection; staminodes absent. Disc absent. Ovary ovoid, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, terminal, depressed globose, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, narrowly ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid, ca. 2.5 X longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

One species: eastern China and Japan.