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Fruit a 3–4-lobed drupe or drupaceous schizocarp, obovoid or globose; mesocarp ± fleshy; endocarp bony or crustaceous; each lobe containing a 1-seeded pyrene; seed without albumen.
Calyx usually red or purple, campanulate to subspherical, ± deeply (4)5(6)-lobed, usually persistent and slightly accrescent in fruit; the lobes acute to rounded.
Leaves simple, opposite-decussate or 3–4-whorled, usually petiolate; lamina entire, undulate, dentate or crenate, distinctly acrid when crushed.
Stamens 4(5?) inserted at the base of corolla-tube, parallel, long exserted, arched; anthers usually basifixed, thecae parallel, not confluent.
Inflorescences terminal or axillary, with flowers in lax or ± dense cymes, the cymes racemosely, corymbosely or paniculately arranged.
Ovary glabrous or hairy, 2-carpellate, each carpel incompletely divided into 2 locules; placentas not furcate; ovules 1 per locule.
Perennial herbs or suffrutices with woody rootstocks, sometimes geoxylic, shrubs, sometimes scandent, or small trees.
Style terminal, slender, ± equalling the filaments; stigma 2-fid, the lobes usually unequal.
Flowers non-resupinate.
