Trees or shrubs, deciduous or semievergreen, usually unarmed; buds ovoid, with several imbricate scales. Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, stipulate, venation craspedodromous or camptodromous and merely toothed, margin serrate or lobed, folded or convolute in bud. Inflorescences corymbose-racemose. Flowers pedicellate. Hypanthium bowl-shaped. Sepals 5, persistent or caducous. Petals 5, white, pink, or red, suborbicular or obovate. Stamens 15–50, with white filaments and yellow anthers. Ovary inferior, 3–5-loculed, with 2 ovules in each cell; styles 3–5, connate at base, glabrous or pubescent. Pome usually not containing stone-cells or present in a few species, 3–5-loculed, 1- or 2-seeded in each cell, with cartilaginous endocarp (core). Seeds brown or black, cotyledons plano-convex.

About 55 species: widely distributed in N temperate zone; 25 species (15 endemic) in China.

(Authors: Gu Cuizhi (Ku Tsue-chih); Stephen A. Spongberg)