Fls 4-5-merous, perfect, solitary, axillary or terminal, sessile or very shortly stalked. Calyx truncate, sts very obscurely toothed; corolla-tube funnelform, lobes valvate; Stamens inserted at base of tube; filaments filiform, far-exserted; anthers large, us. pend.; styles 2, filiform, hairy. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 per cell; drupe fleshy, rarely dry; pyrenes 2. Slender, creeping, branching, slightly foetid perennial herbs, rooting at nodes, with opp. lvs and small interpetiolar stipules. Genus of some 15 spp., of Australia, N.Z., Malaya, Central and South America, Tristan d'Acunha.

2n = 44