Evergreen shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple, alternate, serrate or entire, shortly petiolate; stipules minute, caducous. Inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle. Flowers bisexual, white or pink. Sepals 5, erect or reflexed, deciduous; petals 5; stamens 15–20; carpels 2 or 3, fused, enclosed in and united to receptacle, walls membranous in fruit, ovules usually 2 per carpel. Fruit a subglobose, drupe-like, succulent pome, blackish-purple or bluish; seeds 1 or 2.
About 15 species from south-eastern and eastern Asia; 2 species naturalised in Australia.
