Shrubs or trees, deciduous; buds conspicuous, narrowly conical, with several scales. Leaves simple, petiolate, stipulate, venation camptodromous, margin entire or serrate. Racemes terminal; bracts caducous. Hypanthium campanulate. Sepals 5, margin entire. Petals 5, white, oblong or lanceolate, slender. Stamens 10–20. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, 2–5-loculed, with 2 ovules per locule, separated by a false partition from back of locule; styles 2–5, partly connate or free. Fruit a small berrylike pome, bluish black to dark purple, usually juicy and sweet, incompletely 4–10-loculed, with one seed in each locule, crowned by persistent, usually recurved sepals.

About 25 species: Asia, Europe, North America; two species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Gu Cuizhi (Ku Tsue-chih); Stephen A. Spongberg)