Shrubs evergreen, climbing, with aerial rootlets. Leaves opposite, petiolate; leaf blade margin entire or dentate. Inflorescence terminal, a corymbose panicle. Flowers bisexual, small. Calyx tube adnate to ovary, conical; lobes 4 or 5, imbricate in bud, minute. Petals 4 or 5, valvate in bud, connate apically and forming a calyptra, falling early. Stamens 8-10, epigynous; filaments slender; anthers subglobose, 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary inferior, 4-6-loculed; ovules numerous. Style short, robust; stigma 4-6-lobed. Fruit a capsule, 4- or 5-valved, dehiscing irregularly along ribs. Seeds numerous, oblong, slightly compressed, membranous winged at both ends.

Three species: China, E India, Japan; two species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Huang Shumei (Hwang Shu-mei); Bruce Bartholomew)