Shrubs or small trees, monoecious or rarely dioecious, often resinous. Latex absent. Indumentum, when present, of stellate or simple hairs. Leaves spirally alternate, exstipulate, petiolate or rarely sessile, simple, entire, margins mostly recurved or revolute, marginal glands absent or present. Flowers axillary or terminal on short axillary branchlets, podiate rarely ± sessile, in few-flowered fascicles or cymose clusters, or solitary, bracteolate, gamosepalous; calyx deeply 5-(rarely 4)-lobed, subequal, imbricate (quincuncial); petals absent or, if present, 5 (rarely 4), slightly shorter than or equal to calyx lobes; disc present or absent. Male flowers: receptacle flat or hemispherical; stamens numerous (usually > 9); filaments free, ± erect or spreading, mostly bifid distally; anthers of two separate, parallel but contiguous cells, each transverse or (sect. Beyeria) lateral on the apex of the filament, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; vestiges of gynoecium absent. Female flowers: calyx lobes persistent, rarely accrescent; petals sometimes marcescent; ovary (rarely 1) 2-or 3-locular with one pendant ovule in each locule; style short or obsolete; stigma elobate or shallowly 3-lobulate, calyptriform, discoid or rarely bipartite, persistent. Fruit capsular, mostly 2-or 3-seeded, rarely 1-seeded, separating septicidally often into three 2-valved cocci leaving a persistent columella. Seeds carunculate; testa smooth; endosperm copious; embryo linear, in the middle of the endosperm, cotyledons longer than the radicle.
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