Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, leathery, glabrous, margin entire. Plants polygamo-dioecious or flowers bisexual, in 1 to several axillary dense or interrupted spikes or racemes. Calyx free at least at apical 3/4; sepals 5 or 6, imbricate. Corolla tubular; lobes 5, valvate. Stamens 5, rudimentary in pistillate plants; filaments glabrous, 3-5 × as long as anthers, rarely very short, adnate on corolla tube, alternate petals; anthers ovoid or narrowly ellipsoid. Ovary conical, reduced and sterile in staminate flowers; style subulate or terete; stigma thickly peltate. Drupe ellipsoid, apex subtruncate; exocarp thick, corky-spongy; endocarp thin, woody.

Nine or ten species: S and SE Asia; two species in China.