Trees, deciduous. Winter buds enclosed by scales. Leaves alternate; stipules absent; leaf blade margin serrate or serrulate. Inflorescences axillary or at nodes of previous year branchlets, racemose or paniculate. Pedicel jointed. Flowers opening before or at same time as leafing. Calyx tube obconical and completly adnate to ovary, 5--10-ribbed, 5-toothed. Corolla campanulate; lobes 5, imbricate, basally shortly connate. Stamens 10, 5 long and 5 short; filaments flattened, basally connate and adnate to corolla; anthers ovate to oblong. Ovary inferior, 3- or 4-locular; ovules 4 per locule, basally pendulous, apically erect, placentation axile. Style elongate, slender; stigma obscurely 4- or 5-lobed. Fruit woody, indehiscent, 5--10-ribbed, mostly adnate to calyx, apex with persisent calyx and style base forming a short rostrum; exocarp thin, hard; mesocarp thick, fibrously spongy; endocarp intruded by mesocarp, with many radiate lacunas. Seeds 1--3, narrowly cylindrical; seed coat almost leathery; embryo fleshy.

Five species: SW China, Myanmar, Vietnam; 5 species in China.

note: unknown and not treated in FOC:
Rehderodendron microcarpum K.M.Feng, Fl. Yunnan. 3:410. 1983: type (Mao 451, KUN).
Rehderodendron conostyle C.Y.Wu., Fl. Yunnan. 3. 410. 1983.
Rehderodendron membranifolium C.Y.Wu, Fl. Yunnan. 3. 412. 1983.