Trees or shrubs. Branchlets pubescent but glabrescent. Leaves alternate or opposite, sometimes closely clustered at end of branchlets or with flowers on dwarf shoots. Flowers bisexual or seldom unisexual, solitary or several in axillary clusters, usually bracteate, (4- or)5(or 6)-merous. Calyx 5-lobed with a short tube, sepals imbricate or twisted. Corolla glabrous, rarely outside pubescent. Stamens 5, inserted in throat and opposite corolla lobes; staminodes petal-like, alternate to corolla lobes. Disk absent or cup-shaped, ringlike, usually pubescent. Ovary (4- or)5(or 6)-locular. Fruit a berry, sometimes woody, 1--6-seeded. Seeds compressed ellipsoid; scar narrowly oblong and lateral.

About 100 species: Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Seychelles, Thailand, Vietnam; S America; two species in China.

Planchonella may not be sufficiently distinct from Pouteria to merit being a separate genus.