Shrubs or small trees, usually armed with thorns, sometimes unarmed; bud scales absent. Leaves deciduous, alternate, mostly borne on short shoots and usually fascicled; blade not gland-dotted; pinnately veined. Inflorescences axillary, within foliage, fascicles or flowers solitary; peduncles and pedicels not fleshy in fruit. Pedicels present or absent. Flowers bisexual; hypanthium hemispheric, 1–1.5 mm wide; sepals 5, spreading, greenish abaxially, yellowish adaxially, deltate, keeled adaxially; petals 0 (5, yellow, hooded, spatulate, short-clawed in C. ericoides); nectary absent, thin, or margin thickened, lining hypanthium; stamens 5; ovary superior, 2-locular at least early in development, 1 locule often suppressed; style 1. Fruits drupes; stone 1, indehiscent.
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