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Shrubs or lianas, glabrous in all parts; white latex present in most parts. Leaves opposite; petiole with a single row of colleters in the axils. Inflorescences one or two, at branch apex just below its ramification, pendulous, pedunculate, cymose, congested. Flowers actinomorphic. Corolla white; lobes in bud overlapping to the left; stamens included; anthers introrse, narrowly oblong, apiculate or obtuse,auriculate at the base; pistil glabrous; ovary broadly ovoid, of 2 almost free carpels, surrounded at the base by a shallowly lobed almost free disk; pistil head composed of a 5-ribbed or -winged clavuncular body, each wing between the auriculae of the anther, stigma obscure. Fruit berry-like, many-seeded, the two mericarps free or partly connate, yellow to orange; wall thin, pulp fleshy; aril very thin. Seeds ovoid, with deeply pitted testa and slightly ruminate endosperm.Seven species in tropical Africa.