Herbs or vines. Stem slender, glabrous and fleshy. Leaves entire, alternate, succulent. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary spike, simple or branched, rachis thick or thin. Flowers bisexual, sessile or pedicellate. Perianth uniseriate; sepals 5, usually united from the base, imbricate, often coloured, lobes fleshy, pink, red or white. Corolla absent. Stamens 5, inserted opposite the sepals and adnate to their bases; filaments free, short, distinct; anthers dorsifixed, extrose, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, sessile, 1-locular, 3-carpelled, ovule shortly stalked, campylotropous. Styles slender, 3. Stigma usually 3; placentation basal. Fruit a baccate drupe, purple-black. succulent, surrounded by the persistent and often fleshy calyx. Seed subglobose, the embryo spiral or folded.