Shrubs or small trees. Buds small, conical; bud scales thick and always hairy. Leaves alternate, entire, distichous, papery or subleathery, strongly triplinerved. Inflorescences glomerules, stipitate or rarely estipitate, remotely arranged in an axillary or terminal panicle or solitary in leaf axils. Flowers small, pedicellate. Perianth tube very short; perianth lobes 6, subequal, up to 2 mm, thick and slightly fleshy. Fertile stamens 9, all with filament; filaments of 1st and 2nd whorls glandless, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 glands; anthers 4-celled, upper 2 cells introrse (of 1st and 2nd whorls) or extrorse (of 3rd whorl) or all lateral, lower 2 cells larger and lateral, but sometimes anther cells all arranged in an almost transverse series. Staminodes stipitate, larger. Ovary pearlike, estipitate, gradually attenuate into a short style; stigma discoid. Drupe berrylike, ellipsoid or globose; perianth cup in fruit large and shallow, thickened, crateriform; perianth lobes in fruit persistent and slightly dilated, erect or patent; fruit stalk slender, gradually dilated toward apex.

About seven species: Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam; five species (three endemic) in China.

(Authors: Li Xiwen (李锡文 Li Hsi-wen), Li Jie (李捷); Henk van der Werff)