Woody lianas, puberulent or glabrescent, lenticellate, internodes slightly enlarged. Leaves opposite or subopposite, entire or crenulate. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, cymose. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous. Disk fleshy, cupular, sometimes arranged in rings, extrastaminal. Stamens 3; filaments tonguelike; anthers transversely dehiscent, extrorse. Ovary weakly triangular, partially or wholly concealed in disk, 3-locular; ovules 4-8 per locule. Fruits 1-3-fascicled capsules; capsule transversely flattened, leathery, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds 4-8, with membranous basal wings, exalbuminous.

About 20 species: tropical Africa and Asia; five species (all endemic) in China.

(Authors: Peng Hua (彭华); A. Michele Funston)