Stranglers, woody or scandent shrubs. Stems lenticellate, young parts glabrous or reddish tomentose, hairs 2-armed or stellate (or ?simple). Leaves petiolate, entire, leathery or papery. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemose or paniculate; bracts early deciduous, usually minute. Flowers small, fragrant. Sepals free, persistent, subequal, leathery, usually pubescent abaxially. Corolla white or yellow, deeply 5-lobed; tube short, glabrous outside; lobes of limb 2-lobulate apically, midpetaline bands densely appressed pubescent outside; lateral lobules rather thin, glabrous, with distinct or indistinct venation. Stamens included; filaments triangular or laterally concave; anthers obtuse or acuminate apically, cordate basally, sometimes truncate to retuse at both ends; pollen not spiny. Ovary globose or ellipsoid, 1-loculed, 4-ovuled. Stigma subsessile, ± conical, with 5-10 longitudinal, straight or spirally twisted ridges. Fruit a slightly fleshy berry. Seed 1.

Approximately 67 species: mainly in tropical Asia, Australia, Japan, and Malesia; ten species in China.

Two accounts of the genus established the taxonomic concepts adopted here: How (Sunyatsenia 6: 221-230. 1946) provided keys, descriptions, and lists of specimens examined; Hoogland (Blumea 7: 342-361. 1953) nomenclaturally revised the entire genus, including Chinese taxa described up to that time.