Herbs, shrublets, or shrubs, branched. Stems usually 4-sided, winged or not, usually pubescent with simple or glandular trichomes. Petiole winged or not, usually pubescent; leaf blade thin, secondary veins 2-4(or 5) on each side of midvein, base usually cordate and often oblique, margin serrulate with each tooth having a terminal seta, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences terminal or sometimes axillary, scorpioid cymes or subumbellate, pedunculate; bracts small, caducous. Flowers small, 3[or 6]-merous. Hypanthium tubular-campanulate, 3-sided, 6-ribbed, pubescent. Calyx lobes broadly triangular, small, very short. Petals pink, red, or purplish red, oblong-elliptic. Stamens 3[or 6], equal or unequal; filaments filiform; anthers subulate to broadly ovate, dehiscence poricidal; connective not inflated. Ovary inferior, urceolate, apex with a membranous 3-lobed crown. Style filiform; stigma apiculate. Capsule campanulate to tubular-campanulate, crown woody and exserted from calyx; hypanthium 3[or 6]-sided, 6-ribbed, usually with sparse glandular trichomes. Seeds numerous, cuneate, small, glabrous or small tuberculate.

Some 240 names have been published in this genus, and there may be as many as 150 species.

Sonerila khasiana C. B. Clarke (in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 2: 539. 1879) probably occurs in SE Xizang (Mêdog), although it is not treated here.

About 150 species: tropical Asia; six species (three endemic) in China.