Herbs biennial or perennial, rarely subshrubs, scabrous. Leaves petiolate or sessile, margin entire. Cymes scorpioid, solitary at stem apex or terminating stems and branches and forming a panicle, usually elongated in fruit, bracteate. Flowers actinomorphic, pedicellate or sessile. Calyx parted to or nearly to base; lobes 5, linear or linear-lanceolate, equal, usually enlarged after anthesis. Corolla blue, yellow, rarely white or red, tubular-campanulate or retrorse-conical, usually gradually expanded from base upward, rarely abruptly expanded from middle; throat unappendaged; nectary ringlike or irregularly lobed, pubescent or glabrous; lobes vertical or recurved, margin dentate. Anthers laterally coherent into a tube or sagittate at base, usually pellucid, emarginate, apex sterile. Style included or slightly exserted; stigma capitate. Gynobase flat. Nutlets 4, erect, ovate-triangular, length and width subequal, adaxially usually ribbed, abaxially slightly convex; attachment scar basal.

About 145 species: centered in Asia, 29 species in China.