Shrub or small, deciduous tree, branchlets slender, terete or compressed; leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, shortly petioled, broadly ovate or oblong, penninerved, more or less obtusely acuminate, membranous, not shining, glabrous, hairy on nerves beneath; stipules interpetiolar, broadly lanceolate, cuspidate; flowers solitary or many, white, fragrant in axillary, dense fascicles or cymes, subtended by foliaceous bracts; bracteoles connate; calyx tube short, limbs often glandular, persistent, irregularly few to many toothed; corolla funnel-shaped, tube long, slender, lobes-4-7 or many, recurved, oblong, twisted; stamens 4-7, sessile on the corolla tube, narrow, often recurved, twisted; ovary 2-celled, style filiform, much exserted, smooth, branches linear or subulate, ovule-1, peltately attached to the septum in each locule; drupes sized of a small cherry, didymous or ovoid-oblong with 2-plano-convex, concave or grooved pyrenes, deep purple or crimson when ripe, 2-seeded; seeds plano-convex or grooved.