Trees or rarely shrubs. Leaves simple, petiolate, pulvinate or not, usually entire, glabrous to densely pubescent with stellate hairs. Inflorescences paniculate, cymose or thyrsoid, many-flowered, bracteate. Flowers bisexual, pedicellate, pedicel articulate. Calyx campanulate or obconical, irregularly 3-5-lobed. Corolla rotate; petals (4 or)5, clawed, auriculate or not, white, yellow, or pink. Stamens 15 in 5 groups of 3; filaments fused to ovary stipe to form androgynophore, upper part widening to enclose ovary; anthers sessile, usually in very congested head, 2-celled; staminodes 5, toothlike, minute. Ovary 5-locular, 5-lobed; ovules 2 per locule, ascending; stigma sessile, 5-lobed. Capsule woody, loculicidally and septicidally dehiscent into 10 separate valves. Seeds (1 or)2 per locule, superposed, winged, wing developing abaxially, membranous; endosperm reduced; cotyledons ± flat.
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