Shrubs or trees, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves alternate, petiolate. Inflo-rescences paniculate, terminal or axillary. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, small, umbellate or subcorymbose, pedicellate, usually white, (4-)5-merous; sepals dextrorsely contorted in bud, free or short-connate basally, punctate or lineate; petals short-connate basally, dextrorsely contorted in bud, commonly lineate; stamens usually shorter than the petals, the filaments slender, the anthers elongate, subsagittate basally, dorsifixed or basifixed, usually dehiscent by introrse slits; ovary ovoid in carpellate flowers, with the slender style sub-equaling or exceeding the stamens, abortive in staminate flowers, with the short style less than 1 mm long; placenta with 3-5 uniseriate ovules. Fruit drupaceous, 1-seeded, the endocarp crustaceous or osseous; seed globose or depressed, the endosperm corneous, excavate, not ruminate, the embryo trans-verse, elongate.
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