Shrubs or small trees, evergreen; branches usually stellately pubescent; buds naked. Leaves petiolate; stipules minute, caducous, leaving small scars; leaf blade leathery, margin entire or dentate towards leaf apex, venation pinnate. Inflorescence racemose, terminal, mostly on short 2-leaved lateral branches, pedunculate; basal inflorescence bracts 2. Flowers bisexual. Floral cup turbinate, stellately tomentose. Sepals 5. Petals 5, small, yellow, scalelike, geniculate, with two dorsal swellings. Stamens 5, opposite to sepals, filaments very short; anther thecae 2-sporangiate, each dehiscing by 2 valves; staminodes absent. Ovary almost inferior; ovules 1 per locule; styles long; stigmas very large, spatulate, verrucose, dark purple. Capsules ovoid-globose, woody, dehiscing loculicidally by two 2-lobed valves; endocarp loose from woody exocarp. Seeds narrowly ovoid.

Three species: China, Vietnam; three species (two endemic) in China.