Lianas, dull yellow or grayish villous or sericeous, glabrescent. Leaves simple, petiolate, cordate-ovate, papery, rugulose, abaxially densely pubescent; venation pedate or nearly palmate. Inflorescences axillary (or terminal) bracteate panicles; bracteoles 2, scalelike, basal to calyx. Pedicel filiform. Flowers tiny, often fragrant, fascicled. Sepals free, quincuncial, unequally enlarged, outer 3 greatly enlarged, inner 2 slightly so; midvein 1, secondary veins reticulate. Corolla white, ± funnelform, less than 8 mm; limb 5-lobed, outside villous apically, inside glabrous. Stamens included or exserted; anthers ellipsoid, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen 3-colpate, not spiny. Disc ringlike or absent. Pistil included; ovary unilocular; ovules 4. Style simple (nearly absent in 1 species); stigma 2-globose. Fruit papery, indehiscent. Seed 1, smooth.

Three species: Bhutan, China, India, ?Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, N Thailand, Vietnam; all three species in China.

Fang Rhui-cheng believes that Poranopsis should be reduced to synonymy of Porana.

Poranopsis paniculata is grown as an ornamental in many tropical places, including S Yunnan.