Herbs, perennial. Leaves alternate, pinnately to ternately decompound. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, paniculate, with simple foliar bracts. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 4, connate at base or to nearly their full length. Petals 4, imbricate in bud, margin entire. Stamens (6-)8, distinct. Disk annular to cup-shaped, surrounding and separate from a slender manifestly accrescent gynophore which often becomes apically 4-parted. Gynoecium 4-carpelled; ovaries coherent in ± their basal half, otherwise contiguous; ovules several per locule; style lateral, of 4 coherent stylar elements; stigma punctiform or capitellate. Fruit of 4 distinct apically dehiscent follicles; endocarp thinly cartilaginous, adnate to mesocarp in dehisced fruit. Seeds reniform; seed coat leathery, tuberculate; endosperm ± copious; embryo curved; cotyledons elliptic, flattened; hypocotyl superior.

One species: E, S, and SE Asia.

(Authors: Zhang Dianxiang (张奠湘); Thomas G. Hartley)