Description: Perennial herbs; stems erect or trailing.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous or velvety.
Inflorescence terminal. Flowers slightly zygomorphic, bisexual or male, pedicellate, bracteolate. Outer tepals unequal, erect, persistent, greenish or petaloid; inner tepals subequal, petaloid, blue or purple, persistent. Stamens 6 or rarely 5, equal or subequal, the upper 3 and the central lower one grouped and the lower laterals divergent; filaments short, glabrous, anthers large, oblong, dehiscing by apical pores. Ovary 3-locular; ovules 3–5 per loculus.
Fruit a fleshy capsule; seeds black, enclosed by a reddish aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 35 species, tropical America. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by Peter G. Wilson
Taxon concept:
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