Santalodes Kuntze, nom. rej.; Santaloides G. Schellenberg, nom. cons.

Lianas scandent or shrubs, sometimes trees. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, petiolate, odd-pinnate, rarely 1-foliolate; leaflets often many paired, subopposite or alternate. Inflorescences axillary or pseudoterminal, paniculate; bracts ovate-lanceolate; bracteoles lanceolate, margin fimbriate. Flowers bisexual, small. Sepals 5, imbricate, hairy or glabrous, persistent and enlarged after anthesis, closely clasping base of follicle. Petals 5, longer than sepals, glabrous. Stamens ca. 10, alternately longer and shorter, those opposite sepals longer than those opposite petals; filaments connate at base, glabrous. Carpels 5, free, only 1 maturing, hairy or glabrous; ovules 2, erect, collateral. Style slender; stigma capitate, inconspicuously 2-lobed. Follicle 1, sessile, glabrous, smooth or longitudinally delicately thinly striate, dehiscing usually along adaxial suture, rarely at base, often surrounded by campanulate persistent calyx. Seed 1, flattened; testa glossy, glabrous, with a cupular, fleshy aril adnate at base; endosperm absent.

Between 40 and 100 species: mainly in tropical regions of Africa, America, and Oceania, also in SE Asia; three species in China.