Shrubs or small trees, latex white. Leaves opposite. Corymbs short pedunculate or sessile, axillary, often fascicled. Flowers subsessile, usually sweet scented. Calyx small, without glands inside. Corolla white or pink tinged, salverform, tube slightly widened near mouth; lobes short, overlapping to left; corona absent. Stamens inserted in widened part of corolla tube; anthers ovate to oblong, connective produced into a short, minutely pilose point, shortly 2-lobed at base; disc absent. Ovary 1, 2-loculed; ovules 1 per locule. Style filiform; pistil head cylindric or short conical, base with a ring of papillae, apex minutely 2-lobed. Berry globose or elliptic. Seeds 1 or 2, not comose; endosperm bony; cotyledons broadly ovate or subcordate, radicle superior.

Five species: S and tropical E Africa, Arabia; one species in China.