Trees or tall shrubs. Lvs verticillate to subopposite, simple, entire or spiny-serrate. Fls in terminal or axillary racemes, small, ☿, pedicellate; bracts small, caducous. Perianth regular or the tube slightly curved; limb clavate, slit laterally by protruding style, finally splitting into 4 recurved segments. Filaments short, inserted c. middle of perianth segments or a little higher; connective produced into a gland or short appendage. Hypogynous glands broad and truncate or forming a ring or cup around ovary. Ovary sessile, usually with reddish hairs; ovules 2; style long and clavate; stigma small and terminal. Fr. nut-like, globular, partially dehiscent with the epicarp splitting longitudinally; endocarp woody, indehiscent. Seed 1-2, large, wingless.