Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbers. Branchlets unarmed. Leaves alternate; leaf blade pinnately veined. Inflorescences racemelike or spikelike, sometimes paniculate; rachis ± zigzagged before anthesis. Calyx cupular, truncate or obscurely dentate, greatly accrescent in fruit. Petals 3, margin entire or deeply 2-lobed, free or connate at base. Stamens 3, basally adnate to petals; filaments flat; anthers oblong; staminodes 5, 2-cleft. Disk annular. Ovary superior, 3-loculed below, 1-loculed above, placenta central, free; ovules 3. Style short or elongate; stigma capitellate, minutely 3-lobed. Drupe ellipsoid to ± globose, basal 1/2 to near apex covered by persistent calyx, 1-seeded; endosperm copious.

About 40 species: tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia; three species (one endemic) in China.