Trees or shrubs. Branchlets usually angular. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite; petiole grooved; leaf blade entire, veins pinnate. Cymes or corymbs terminal, rarely axillary. Flowers usually foetid, bisexual or polygamous, without bracts. Calyx persistent, cupular or campanulate, small, shallowly 5-lobed. Petals 5, loriform, valvate, outside strigose, inside villous, apex reflexed, usually glabrous. Stamens usually free; filaments filiform, usually flat, fleshy, basally slightly dilated; anthers ovoid. Disk leaflike, inside hairy, 5-10-lobed. Ovary hispid, rarely glabrous; style filiform to shortly conical; stigma capitate, truncate, rarely 2-lobed or concave. Drupe ellipsoid, ovoid, or oblong-obovoid, berrylike; mesocarp fleshy; endocarp thin, rugose or smooth. Seeds with copious endosperm.

Seven species: tropical Asia, reaching into temperate regions of China; six species (five endemic) in China.