Shrubs or trees, evergreen, unarmed. Trichomes simple. Leaves opposite, trifoliolate or simple. Inflorescences compoundly or simply racemose, axillary. Flowers bisexual, 4-merous. Sepals basally connate, persistent in fruit. Petals valvate. Stamens 4; filaments sublinear. Gynoecium subapocarpous, 4-carpelled; ovules 2 per locule; style subapical; stigma capitate, punctiform, or becoming inconspicuously 4-parted. Fruit of 1–4 basally connate follicles, these ±asymmetrically ovoid to ellipsoid, usually with short stylar beak; exocarp subwoody; abortive carpels persistent; ventral endocarp membranaceous to subfleshy, tearing free from rest of endocarp and ±persistent on seed as an ovate to elliptic piece of tissue; dorsilateral endocarp cartilaginous, glabrous, separate and usually expelled from dehisced fruit. Seeds solitary or in pairs, ovoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, expelled from dehisced fruit; testa thin and brittle, lustrous, verrucose, with sclerotesta; endosperm copious. Embryo straight, cotyledons flattened, elliptic; hypocotyl terminal, considerably narrower than cotyledons.
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