Description from Flora of China
Shrubs, subshrubs, or small trees, unarmed. Raphides present. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, sometimes with domatia; stipules persistent or sometimes with top portion deciduous, interpetiolar or united around stem, triangular to bifid, sometimes with basal portion becoming hardened, sometimes glandular at apex or on short appendages. Inflorescence terminal, thyrsiform to cymose, many flowered, sessile to pedunculate, bracteate. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, bisexual, usually distylous. Calyx limb 5-lobed [to truncate or denticulate]. Corolla white to pink or pale yellow, tubular to funnelform, with tube often curved, variously glabrous or pubescent inside; lobes 5, valvate in bud. Stamens 5, inserted in corolla tube, included or exserted; filaments short or absent; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 in each cell, basal; stigmas 2, linear, included or exserted. Infructescence frequently becoming purple with axes swollen and jointed. Fruit purple to black, drupaceous, fleshy, ellipsoid, subglobose, or ovoid, with calyx limb persistent; pyrenes 2, plano-convex, 1-celled, each with 1 seed, smooth on dorsal surface, on ventral surface with a large concave excavation; seeds medium-sized, compressed orbicular; endosperm fleshy; radicle cylindrical, basiscopic.
About 40 species: widespread in tropical Africa, Asia, and Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands; one species in China.
(Authors: Chen Tao (陈涛); Charlotte M. Taylor)