Shrubs or small trees, usually glabrous. Stipules intrapetiolar, often imbricating on short branches. Leaves alternate, often subdistichous, simple. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, small, often heterostylous. Sepals 5(or 6), usually basally connate. Petals 5, white or pink, clawed, usually with a ligule on inner face at base, imbricate. Stamens 10; filament usually basally connate into a glandular or nonglandular tube. Ovary 3(or 4)-locular, with 1(or 2) ovules in single fertile locule; styles distinct or connate; stigmas oblique. Drupe 1-seeded. Seed with a thin testa; endosperm variable in quantity or absent; embryo straight.

About 230 species: widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics, especially South America; two species (one introduced) in China.