Shrubs parasitic, glabrous or with stellate hairs and glabrescent. Leaves opposite or alternate, rarely subwhorled, pinnately veined. Inflorescences axillary, rarely terminal, racemes or spikes; 1 bract subtending each flower. Flowers bisexual, 4-6-merous, actinomorphic, sessile or pedicellate. Calyx limb 4-6-denticulate, persistent. Mature flower bud straight, basal 1/2 usually slightly inflated and angled, distal portion usually subclavate. Corolla red, pink, orange, or yellowish, petals free, straight, spreading. Stamens usually inserted at middle of the petals. Filaments short; anthers 2-4-loculed, sometimes multilocellate, ellipsoid. Pollen grain semiangular or semilobate in polar view. Ovary 1-loculed; placentation basal. Style subcylindric, 4-6-angled; stigma capitate or truncate. Berry ovoid or ellipsoid, exocarp leathery, smooth or pubescent.

Barlow (Fl. Malesiana, Ser. 1, Spermatoph. 13: 328. 1997) estimated the global number of species to be 35.

Up to 50 species: tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia; seven species (two endemic) in China.