Trees or shrubs. Leaves often coriaceous; stipules usually entire, free or con-nate, usually awned, the base usually ovate triangular. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, often disposed as loose decussate panicles or umbellate cymes, ulti-mately cymose; bracts present or absent, occasionally with 2 large bracts at the base of the inflorescence; pedicels often stout, stiff. Flowers 4(-5)-merous, ca-lycine cup truncate, teeth present or absent; corolla tubular or salverform, the lobes usually 4, valvate in bud, usually wider than the tube; pollen dimorphic; stigmas disposed as 2 filamentous or clavate lobes, ovary 2-celled, becoming 1-locular with the ovules collateral or connate at the apex of the incomplete septum. Fruits drupaceous, depressed oval to rotund, 1-seeded by fusion of the ovules; seed horizontal, usually with a deep ventral groove.
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