Ganitrus Gaertner; Monocera Jack.

Trees or rarely shrubs. Leaves alternate or spirally arranged; stipules linear or rarely leaflike, caducous, rarely persistent; petiole usually long and swollen at both ends; leaf blade margin serrate or entire, pinnately veined. Inflorescence axillary, racemose. Flowers bisexual, 4- or 5-merous. Sepals 4 or 5, valvate, abaxially usually pubescent. Petals 4 or 5, white, free, margin laciniate, rarely entire or lobed. Stamens 8 to numerous; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing from apical slits, with awn or hairs at tip. Disk usually glandularly 5-10-lobed, rarely circular. Ovary superior, 2-5(-7)-loculed; ovules 2-12 per locule; style linear or subulate. Fruit a drupe, 1(or 5)-loculed; endocarp hard, bony, surface usually lacunose. Seeds usually 1 per locule, with fleshy endosperm; cotyledons thin; embryo straight or curved.

About 360 species: primarily in the Old World tropics; 39 species (14 endemic) in China.