Description

Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite or opposite. Cymes arranged in lax or dense panicles, ebracteate, terminal or axillary. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx tubular or ± campanulate, usually splitting irregularly, 3-5-toothed, usually accrescent and cup-shaped in fruit. Corolla 4-5(-7)-lobed, funnel-shaped to salver-shaped, white or yellowish. Ovary 4-locular (abortive in male flowers). Style terminal, twice 2-fid with 4 slender or clavate, stigmas. Fruit drupaceous, partially or wholly surrounded by the enlarged persistent calyx.