Description: Herbs or shrubs, glabrous or sparsely covered with simple or stellate hairs.
Leaves 3-veined from near base, toothed.
Cymes axillary or leaf-opposed, or flowers solitary or 2 or 3 clustered together. Sepals and petals mostly 5, ± equal in length. Stamens numerous, sometimes inserted on a slightly expanded disc, hypogynous or slightly perigynous. Ovary 2–5-locular, style simple, ovules several per loculus.
Capsule long, without bristles [or short or globose and ± warted or bristly], seeds several in each loculus.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 100 species, tropical & subtropical regions. Australia: 25 species, Qld, N.S.W., N.T., W.A., chiefly tropical
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Capsule less than 30 mm long, on stalk 10–20 mm long; lowest pair of teeth on leaf laminas not extended into bristles | Corchorus cunninghamii |
| Capsule more than 50 mm long, stalk less than 5 mm long; lowest pair of teeth on leaf laminas ending in spreading or recurved bristles more than 5 mm long | Corchorus olitorius |
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