Herbs, with simple and glandular hairs. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade simple. Flowers solitary, axillary or in branch forks, pedicellate, actinomorphic. Calyx campanulate, deeply 5-parted. Corolla campanulate, shallowly lobed; lobes ovate. Stamens included, inserted on corolla tube; filaments slender; anthers elliptic, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 3-5-locular; ovules numerous. Style filiform; stigma subcapitate, 3-5-lobed. Fruiting calyx conspicuously enlarged, persistent, enclosing fruit, lobes cordate-sagittate, each with 2 basal auriculate lobes. Berry globose, dry. Seeds reniform-discoid, compressed, pitted; embryo much curved, subperipheral, cotyledons subcylindric.

Monotypic: widely cultivated or naturalized, also in China.