Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, distichous, short-petiolate, the petiole some-times 1-or 2-glandular at the apex, the stipules small and fugacious; blade simple, + inequilateral and oblique at the base, the margins glandular-serrate (the glands on the lower side of the serrations), penninerved. Inflorescences usually terminal, infrequently oppositifolious, paniculate or racemose, rarely corymbose. Flowers small, , rarely polygamous or dioecious, the pedicels articulated above the base, the bracts and bracteoles deltoid, minute; sepals 3(-4), valvate, shortly united at the base, persistent; petals isomerous with the sepals and similar to them, more or less imbricate in bud, persistent; stamens so, hypogynous or the outer ones slightly epigynous, pluriseriate, inserted on a glabrous or villosulous disc, distinct; filaments filiform; anthers small, introrse, didymous-subglobose, basifixed, 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary sessile, 1-locular or incompletely pseudo-3-8-locular, the placentas 3-8, parietal, filiform or lamelliform and intruding into the ovary, the ovules cc, small and pluriseriate; style simple, the stigma minutely capitate. Fruits baccate, fleshy or coriaceous, surmounted by the persistent style, indehiscent; seeds numerous, embedded in a fleshy pulp, the testa crustaceous; endosperm copious, carnose; embryo small; cotyledons thick.
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