Shrubs or trees, resin canals absent. Stems erect, much-branched; young branches lepidote, hairs irregularly branched, thick-walled. Leaves alternate, sometimes pseudoverticillate; blade oblong-obovate to spatulate, base attenuate, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded or retuse, mucronate or mucro absent, surfaces glabrous, punctate. Inflorescences terminal [axillary] racemes, 4-30(-40)-flowered, pedunculate. Pedicels present, bracteate. Flowers: sepals distinct; corolla white or cream, darkening to yellow with age, salverform or short-campanulate, lobes shorter to longer than tube, apex rounded to acute; stamens borne at base of corolla tube; filaments distinct; anthers at first aggregated around stigma and style, later spreading; staminodes borne at apex of corolla tube, petaloid; stigma capitate, lobed. Berries orange-red or red, ovoid or globose, apex apiculate. Seeds 2-8, brown or light brown, oblong to elliptic, subglobose, alveolate, completely covered by placental tissue. x = 18. Bonellia, with a total of 22 species, was until recently included in Jacquinia. We follow B. Ståhl and M. Källersjö (2004) in treating them separately here.