Shrubs or small trees with slender branches. Leaves opposite. Inflorescence terminal or axillary corymbs of cymes. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes blunt, usually with scales or glands inside. Corolla hypocrateriform, lobes overlapping to the left in bud with a corona of 5 fimbriate scales, in 1 or 2 series in the throat. Stamens in the mouth of the tube; filament short with exserted, sagittate, connivent anthers. Disc usually absent. Carpels free or syncarpous; ovules many in each carpel; style filiform with ovoid stigma. Follicles free or connate, slender, terete with linear compressed seeds; coma deciduous.