Trees, rarely shrubs, evergreen or rarely deciduous. Bark red, gray, or brown. Leaves simple, alternate, to 50 cm, with or without persistent or deciduous amplexicaul wings. Flowers solitary or in few- to many-flowered racemes, large. Sepals (4 or)5(-18), fleshy, often accrescent. Petals (4 or)5(-7) or absent. Stamens very numerous, inner often with longer anthers than outer; anthers dehiscing by 2 (sub)apical pores or less often by 2 longitudinal slits, connective narrow, linear. Carpels partially joined, 4-20, adnate to conical receptacle; ovules 1 to numerous per carpel. Fruit enclosed by enlarged sepals, carpels dehiscing along ventral suture or indehiscent. Seeds usually only 1 or few per carpel, arillate or not.

About 65 species: Madagascar to Fiji, most species in tropical Asia; three species in China.