Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, usually evidently petiolate, margin entire or serrate, rarely lobed. Cymes mostly corymbose, ebracteate. Flowers bisexual, frequently heterostylous or ± functionally unisexual. Calyx tubular or campanulate, enlarged after anthesis, persistent. Corolla white, yellow, or orange-red, campanulate to funnelform, usually (4- or) 5(-8)-lobed; lobes antrorse or recurved. Stamens usually well developed; filaments often pubescent at base. Ovary 4-loculed, glabrous; ovule 1 per locule. Style twice 2-cleft, each branch with a spatulate or capitate stigma. Drupes ovoid, globose, or ellipsoid, frequently with watery or sticky fleshy mesocarp and bony endocarp, rarely with corky mesocarp or nutlike without fleshy mesocarp. Seeds 1-4, without endosperm; cotyledons plicate.

About 325 species: mostly in tropics of North and South America, poorly represented in Africa and Asia; five species in China.