Shrubs or small trees, usually climbing or scrambling. Stamens numerous, linear or obconic; anther-thecae not septate. Inflorescence of solitary flowers or of few-flowered cymes, these terminal or extra-axillary, often leaf-opposed. Sepals 3. Petals 6, in two rows. Carpels, many, free in fruit, borne on a stipe, globular to cylindric, indehiscent, dry or succulent, sometimes edible.
Worldwide: 110 species in the tropics of the Old World