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Small trees or shrubs, deciduous. Leaves odd-pinnate, usually with 3 or 5 leaflets; stipules caducous; leaflet blades oblong to elliptic, glabrous or sometimes slightly pubescent, margin serrate to serrulate. Inflorescence a panicle or a raceme, usually terminal. Flower bisexual. Sepals 5, of equal size, imbricate. Petals 5, as long as sepals or slightly longer, white, yellow, or pinkish. Stamens 5, inserted at base of petals; filaments glabrous or slightly pubescent. Disk small, inconspicuous. Ovary 2-or 3-locular; styles 2 or 3, free or united; stigma capitate; ovules several per locule. Capsule inflated, bladderlike, with membranous fruit wall, dehiscing at tip of each carpel. Seeds shining yellow to brown.
Fls perfect; sep nearly as long as the erect pet; filaments slender, elongate; ovary and fr 3-lobed; styles erect, distinct below, connate above; fr a large, thin-walled, much inflated capsule, dehiscent at the top along the ventral sutures of the free tips of the carpels; shrubs or small trees with drooping terminal panicles of white or greenish-white fls. 10, N. Temp.
