Trees or shrubs. Leaves simple, entire or palmately lobed, rarely palmately compound, margin entire or dentate. Inflorescence usually axillary, usually paniculate, rarely racemose. Flowers unisexual. Calyx 5-lobed or 5-partite. Petals absent. Male flowers: anthers clustered at top of androgynophore, enclosing undeveloped carpels. Female flowers: androgynophore very short, staminodes at top of androgynophore in whorl around base of carpels. Carpels 5; ovules 2 to many per carpel; styles connate at base; stigmas as many as carpels, free. Fruit a group of follicles, usually leathery, less often woody, dehiscent when mature. Seeds 1 to many per follicle, usually with endosperm.

The fruits of nine species and male and/or female flowers of a further four species have not been recorded, indicating that the Chinese members of this genus require much more study in the field.

Sterculia bodinieri H. Léveillé is the basionym of Phyllanthus bodinieri (H. Léveillé) Rehder in the Euphorbiaceae s.l. (see Fl. China 11).

Between 100 and 150 species: tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres, most abundant in Asian tropics; 26 species (14 endemic, one introduced) in China.