Trees or shrubs. Leaves petiolate, entire or serrate at margin. Inflorescences corymbose or paniculate-cymose. Calyx 5- lobed. Corolla white or pale yellow, tubular or tubular-campanulate, rarely funnelform, 5-lobed; lobes spreading or reflexed. Filaments usually exserted; anthers ovate to oblong or linear. Ovary ovoid, 2-loculed, each locule with 2 ovules. Style terminal, 2-cleft; stigmas 2, capitate or elongated. Drupes yellow, orange, or pale red, subglobose, glabrous, endocarp divided at maturity into 2 2-seeded or 4 1-seeded pyrenes.

About 50 species: mostly in Africa and S Asia, three in North America and the Caribbean; 14 species in China, mainly S of the Chang Jiang.