Shrubs or trees, glabrous. Branchlets usually with 2 or 4 longitudinal ridges. Leaves distichous, entire; margins recurved. Flowers in axillary cymes or solitary. Sepals 5, imbricate, outer smaller than inner. Petals 5, imbricate. Stamens 5, inserted at inner side of narrow grooves in disc; anthers basifixed, opening ±apically by longitudinal slits. Ovary partly immersed in disc, obtusely conical, truncate, 3-locular with 6-10 ovules per locule arranged in 2 rows; stigma sessile, broad with a central triradiate slit. Fruit a fusiform 3-valved capsule. Seeds in rows, on elongated funicles from 3 placentas, embedded in a fleshy aril much larger than seed. Embryo straight; cotyledons oblong.
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