Trees or shrubs, evergreen or very rarely deciduous. Branches unarmed. Stipules small, free or sometimes connate, soon caducous. Leaves simple, alternate, conduplicate when young, usually with 2 to rarely several nectaries on petiole, at base on leaf blade abaxial surface, or along leaf blade margin; leaf blade margin entire or serrate. Inflorescences axillary, usually racemose, rarely in a fascicle, very rarely paniculate, usually with more than 10 flowers; bracts small, soon caducous, basal ones usually sterile and with a tripartite or tridentate apex; bracteoles often absent. Flowers usually bisexual, sometimes male with ovary ± reduced. Hypanthium cup-shaped to campanulate. Sepals 5. Petals 5, white, longer than sepals. Stamens 10–50, in 2 whorls, inner ones shorter. Ovary superior, 1-loculed, glabrous or sometimes pubescent; ovules 2, collateral. Style terminal; stigma disc-shaped. Fruit a drupe; mesocarp succulent, not splitting when ripe; endocarp bony or woody, surface smooth or rugose.

About 80 species: Asia, Europe, New Guinea, North and South America; 13 species (six endemic) in China.

(Authors: Lu Lingdi (Lu Ling-ti); Bruce Bartholomew)