Shrubs or small trees, the pubescence of stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, com-pound-digitate, petiolate, stipulate, the stipules caducous or sometimes persistent, the leaflets inarticulate, entire or not, penninerved. Inflorescences cauliflorous, fasciculate. Flowers hermaphrodite, actinomorphous, pedicellate, bracteolate; calyx patelliform or cymbiform, divided more or less deeply into 3, rarely 4 lobes at anthesis; petals 5 (sometimes 4?), valvate, cucullate, the apex involute and provided with an extraordinarily elongate liguliform appendage; stamens usually 15, the staminal tube short, divided into 5 alternipetalous, petaloid staminodes and 5 oppositipetalous groups of generally 3 short filaments; anthers 2-thecate, the thecae divergent, extrorse, longitudinally dehjiscent; ovary sessile, globose to ovoid, 5-celled, the cells many-ovulate, the ovules biseriate; style filiform; stigma obscurely 5-fid. Fruit baccate, coriaccous to ligneous, longitudinally 10-costate, indehiscent, pulpy inside; seeds obtusely angulate, the albumen scanty; embryo erect; cotyledons thick, corrugate.
Home