Mainly vines, sometimes small trees or erect herbs; leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate, rarely absent; flowers perfect, regular or nearly so; sepals 4-5; corolla tubular, somewhat 4-5-lobed, often trumpet-shaped; stamens 4-5, alternate with the corolla-lobes, borne adnate to the corolla, usually near the base; ovary superior, 14-celled; ovules 1-2 in each cell, basal, erect; fruit a capsule or berry; seeds often hairy. About 50 genera and more than 1000 species, cosmopolitan.