Fls small, mostly perfect, regular, bracted, 4-5-merous, solitary or in spikes or racemes, occ. panicled. Calyx persistent; corolla hypog., lobes imbricate or valvate. Stamens epipetalous or hypog., alt. with corolla-lobes, sts with tufts of hairs or glands between. Anthers 1-celled, dehiscing lengthwise. Ovary often subtended by a glandular disk, style simple Fr. a capsule or drupe with us. axile placentae; seeds with straight embryo, endosperm fleshy. Shrubs or small trees with us. alt., exstipulate, simple lvs. Some 30 genera and 400 spp. of Australia, Tasmania, N.Z., with a few outliers.

Prostrate or erect evergreen shrubs or shrublets, more rarely small trees. Lvs alternate, very rarely opposite, often ericoid, sometimes densely crowded, usually entire, often rigid and coriaceous, exstipulate. Fls small, solitary, in spikes or racemes, axillary or terminal, usually ☿; bracts usually prominent. Calyx 4-5-lobed or of free sepals, persistent. Corolla 4-5-lobed, rarely of free petals; lobes imbricate or valvate, occasionally the lobes coherent and tube opening transversely. Stamens 4-5, generally epipetalous but sometimes inserted on receptacle; anthers 1-locular, opening by longitudinal slits; staminodes sometimes present or reduced to hair tufts or glands. Pollen often shed in tetrads. Ovary superior, nearly always surrounded by hypogynous nectariferous disc of scales; carpels (1)-5-10; style single; ovules 1-many on axile or apical placentae. Fr. a loculicidal capsule (subfam. Epacrideae) or a drupe with 1-5-seeded stone (subfam. Styphelieae). Seeds small, endospermic; embryo straight.