Large, erect, leafy shrub, rarely armed; branches spreading, terete, sparsely tomentose; leaves opposite, ovate-elliptic, acute, coarsely serrate towards the apex, glabrous, short petioled; flowers small in erect or drooping, terminal panicles; peduncle long; calyx sub-campanulate, 5-lobed, lobes triangular, valvate, sparsely pubescent outside, glabrous inside; corolla blue, violet or white, often with yellowish throat, hypocrateriform, tube cylinric, pubescent within, lobes spreading, broad, obtuse; stamens 4, didynamous, filaments very short, slender, slightly exserted, anthers sagitate, dorsifixed, cells-2, parallel; ovary 8-celled, 8-ovuled; style slender; stigma obliquely subcapitate or 4-lobed; fruits drupe of 4-pyrenes, each 2-seeded, yellow to orange at maturity, completely included within accrescent calyx; seeds oblong, smooth.