Fls perfect, regular, 5-(4)-merous, in bracted racemes or cymes to solitary. Calyx-lobes imbricate; corolla tubular, lobes contorted or imbricate. Stamens inserted on corolla-tube; filaments free; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, quite free to connivent, connective often produced. Disk us. annular. Ovary superior, 1-or 2-loculed; style single. Fr. various, seeds often winged or comose. Trees, shrubs or lianes with us. opp., simple, entire, exstipulate lvs. Subcosmopolitan family of some 300 genera and 1400 spp.

Shrubs, lianes or trees, rarely herbs, usually with milky latex, often poisonous. Lvs opposite or verticillate, rarely alternate, exstipulate, simple, entire. Infl. various, usually cymose, sometimes fls solitary. Fls actinomorphic, ☿, 5-merous. Calyx deeply lobed, often glandular inside; lobes imbricate. Corolla gamopetalous; lobes convolute and twisted in bud, oblique. Stamens (4)-5, inserted in tube or at mouth; filaments usually free, rarely united; anthers free or united round stigma, often sagittate. Pollen grains not adherent. Disc usually present. Ovary superior; carpels 2, often free and united by single style, 1-locular with 2 parietal placentas or 2-locular with a septum and placentas adnate to it. Ovules 2 or more. Fr. entire or composed of 2 separate carpels, baccate, drupaceous or follicular. Seeds mostly winged or with a coma, endospermic.

Herbs, shrubs or climbers, rarely trees or dwarf succulents, usually with milky latex. Lvs usually opposite, less commonly verticillate, simple, exstipulate, sometimes reduced to scales. Fls in axillary or terminal cymes or cymose umbels, ☿, actinomorphic, 5-merous. Calyx deeply lobed; lobes imbricate or valvate. Corolla gamopetalous; lobes contorted or valvate in bud. Corona usually present, simple or of separate scales, in a single or double row. Anthers united in a ring and usually adnate to stigma, forming a gynostegium. Pollen usually aggregated in pollinia, sometimes in tetrads, attached to translators (organs for transferring pollen, usually arm-like processes). Disc 0. Ovary superior. Carpels 2, free below, united at the disc-like stigma. Fr. a pair of follicles, often only one developing. Seeds with apical coma of long silky hairs.