Trees, dioecious. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, many lobed, or pinnatipartite. Inflorescences axillary or ramiflorous, rarely terminal on short branchlets, simple, a raceme of flower pairs; bracts of flower pairs linear, subulate, or lanceolate, ± persistent; floral bracts often caducous. Perianth tube straight, slender; limb clavate to ellipsoid, basally dilated, segments revolute at anthesis. Stamens subsessile, inserted at base of limb; anthers oblong; connective apiculate; staminodes present in female flowers. Pollen grains triporate, exine reticulate. Hypogynous glands 4, free, close together. Ovary sessile; ovules 2, orthotropous. Style apically mostly clavate; stigma terminal or lateral, punctiform; pistillode present in male flowers. Fruit drupaceous, exocarp leathery, thin; mesocarp carnose, spongy, or with numerous radial soft fibers, sometimes fibers nearly absent when dry; endocarp hard, woody, rarely thin, outer face reticulate-lacunose. Seed 1 and ± globose or seeds 2 and hemispheric, testa thin, cotyledons fleshy.

About 10 species: SE Asia and E Himalayas; three species (two endemic) in China.