Shrubs or trees, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves alternate, often clustered, entire to serrate; stipules minute. Flowers bisexual, small, usually in cymes in axils of leaves or cataphylls; peduncle subtended by bract; pedicels articulate. Sepals 5, nearly equal, imbricate in bud. Petals 5, imbricate in bud, spreading, sometimes reflexed, white or cream to pale green. Stamens 5, inserted on margin of disc; anthers introrse or latrorse. Ovary partly immersed in disc, perfectly or imperfectly 2–5-locular; septa touching near apex, connate near base; ovules 2–10 per locule, attached to inner angle of septum, biserially arranged from base or near centre of axis; stigmas 3–5 or single and ± lobed. Fruit a capsule containing 1 to several seeds with fleshy ± irregularly lobed red arils.
Home