Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, slender-petiolate, the stipules usually large, foliaceous, persistent; blade membranous, 5-7-nerved from the base, glandular-serrate along the margins (the glands on the lower side of the serrations), 2-glandular above at the base. Inflorescences terminal, racemose or fasciculate, rarely flowers solitary. Flowers , the pedicels articulated above the base, the bracteoles 2, narrowly triangular; sepals 3, rarely 4, valvate, persistent; petals isomerous with and smaller than the sepals, persistent, or none; stamens co, pluriseriate, free, inserted on the slightly elevated receptacle, the filaments filiform, the anthers small, didymous-subglobose, basifixed, 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary free, 3-5-locular, the ovules so; style simple, the stigma scarcely enlarged. Fruits bac-cate, dry, surmounted by the persistent style, indehiscent, 3-5-locular; seeds numerous, small, imbedded in a white pulp, the testa brittle; endosperm copious; embryo straight; cotyledons thick.
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