The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three, ovate, glossy, dark green, 1.5–8 cm long, turning purplish-bronze to red in autumn in the deciduous species.

The flowers appear in the upper leaf axils and stem ends, 1-8 together in a short cyme; they are pendulous, white to pink, bell-shaped with a five-lobed corolla, 1–5 cm long, and usually scented.

The generic name commemorates Clarke Abel, a keen naturalist who accompanied Lord Amherst's unsuccessful embassy to China in 1816 as a surgeon, under the sponsorship of Sir Joseph Banks.

[3] In 2015 Wang, Landrein, et al. also found that Abelia was polyphyletic, and that Zabelia was more closely related to Morina than to the rest of the subfamily Linnaeoideae.

[6][7] Abelia has an OPALS allergy scale rating of 5 out of 10, indicating moderate potential to cause allergic reactions, exacerbated by over-use of the same plant throughout a garden.