Erect or scandent, glabrous shrub, with or without spines. Leaves alternate, entire with almost parallel nerves, petiolate to subsessile, stipules subulate. Flowers in fascicles, axillary spikes or panicles, hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx 5-6 fid., hypanthium hemispherical or turbinate. Petals 5-6 obovate, sometimes hooded. Disc thick, lining the calyx tube. Stamens exerted. Ovary surrounded by disc, but free, 2-celled ovoid, narrowed upward; style bifid; stigma 2 lobed. Drupe cylindric or ovoid, hard. Pyrenes woody, 2-celled.