Shrubs or trees, evergreen, unarmed. Trichomes simple. Buds naked. Leaves opposite, trifoliolate, without domatia. Inflorescences paniculate, terminal and/or axillary. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous (rarely occasional flowers 6-merous). Sepals basally connate, 1–1.5 mm long, persistent in fruit. Petals imbricate, distinct, deciduous in fruit. Stamens twice as many as petals, alternately unequal in length. Gynoecium subapocarpous, 5-carpelled (rarely in occasional flowers 4-carpelled); carpels in ovary each with prominent upper-abaxial gland; ovules 2 per locule; style apical (but inserted below the level of the prominent glands); stigma punctiform. Fruit of 1–5 basally connate follicles, these truncately obovoid, 6–8 mm long; exocarp woody, tomentose; abortive carpels persistent; ventral endocarp membranaceous to subfleshy, tearing free from rest of endocarp and ±persistent on seed as a triangular, ovate, or lanceolate piece of tissue; dorsilateral endocarp cartilaginous, separate and usually expelled from dehisced fruit. Seeds solitary, narrowly to broadly and obliquely pyriform, c. 5 mm long, expelled from dehisced fruit; testa brown, smooth, polished, membranaceous, without sclerotesta; endosperm scant. Embryo straight; cotyledons plano-convex, ovate in outline; hypocotyl terminal, considerably narrower than cotyledons.
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