Plants trees or shrubs, sometimes with spines. Leaves opposite or whorled, shiny, entire or toothed. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, racemose although frequently apearing paniculate. Flowers with subtending bracts, usually pedicellate; calyces tubular, 5-ribbed, toothed truncate, or contracted at the top, accrescent and shining in fruit; corollas united, blue or white, tube more than twice as along as the lobes, cylindrical, straight or curved distally, lobes 5, usually unequal, pubescent on both sides; stamens 4, of two lengths, attached to the upper portion of the corolla and not exceeding it, the filaments very short, sometimes also 1 staminode present, anthers sagittate with parallel thecae; ovary with 4 carpels but usually more or less 8-celled; styles terminal, shorter than or as long as the stamens, the stigmatic region obliquely subcapitate or unequally 4-lobed. Fruits fleshy, usually with the calyx attached.
Duranta includes about 17 species, all native to the Americas or Caribbean Islands.