Shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple, alternate; stipule absent. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, in axillary cymes, rarely solitary; pedicel base articulated; bracts persistent, leaf-shaped. Sepals basally connate. Petals as many as sepals, imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes 5 degenerated; anthers versatile. Disk inconspicuous. Ovary with 5 carpels; ovules 2 per carpel, basal-marginal; styles filiform. Fruit nutlike, 3-5 per flower, surrounded by persistent calyx. Seed 1; embryo curved, exalbuminous.

One species: tropical coasts throughout the world.