Shrubs or small to tall trees, the trunk sometimes buttressed, the hairs usually stellate, sometimes simple. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, the stipules very small and caducous, the blade entire, asymmetrical at the base, penninerved. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cymose-paniculiform, the bracts very small. Flowers hermaphrodite, actinomorphous, pedicellate, (3-)4-or 5-merous; calyx valvate, the sepals (3-)4-5, free, thick, fleshy, pubescent without, glabrous within; petals 4-5 or absent, free, valvate, somewhat shorter than the sepals; stamens numerous, all fertile, grouped into 4-5 phalanges opposite the petals, the filaments of each phalanx shortly connate at the base; anthers oblong, mucronate at the apex, 2-thecate, introrse, basifixus, erect, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary superior, sessile, (3-)4-or 5-celled, the cells many-ovulate (4-5 ovules in each cell?); style simple; stigma undivided. Capsules loculicidally dehiscent, (3-)4-or 5-loculate, each cell 1-to 3-seeded; seeds pendulous, arillate, the aril fleshy; albumen copious, carnose; cotyledons flat, foliaceous.
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