Evergreen, large shrubs or trees. Leaves petiolate, coriaceaous, opposite, with prominent intramarginal veins, glossy. Inflorescence a cyme, raceme or umbel, often panicled cymes terminal or if lateral then usually at leafless nodes on old wood. Flowers small or large, bracteolate. Sepals 4 – 5, united tube prolonged into a pseudopedicel at the base, limb truncate or with persistent or deciduous lobes. Petals as many as sepals, free or connate into a calyptra, usually conspicuous. Stamens born on margins of calyx tube. Ovary inferior, 2 – (-3)-locular, ovules numerous per locule. Fruit a 1-few-seeded berry.