Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or lanceolate, leathery, basal veins 3, margin entire or lobed in distal 1/2. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cymose paniculate. Flowers bisexual. Sepals 5, free. Petals 5 or rarely absent, glandular at base adaxially. Stamens many, free, borne distally on androgynophore. Ovary superior, usually 3-loculed; ovules 4-7 per locule; style simple; stigma subulate, usually not lobed. Fruit a drupe, globose, obovoid, or pyriform, not furrowed, without drupelets.

About 60 species: primarily in Africa, Asia; three species in China.