Trees or shrubs, with watery sap, rarely herbaceous vines. Leaves alternate (opposite in one exotic genus), mostly pinnate or palmate, without stipules. Flowers polygamo-dioecious, regular or slightly irregular. Sepals or calyx-lobes 4-5, mostly imbricated. Petals 3-5. Disk fleshy. Stamens 5-10 (rarely fewer or more), generally inserted on the disk. Ovary, 1, 2-4-lobed or entire, 2-4-celled; ovules 1 or more in each cavity. Fruit various. Seeds globose or compressed; embryo mainly convolute; cotyledons often unequal; endosperm none.

About 125 genera, including over 1000 species, widely distributed in tropical and warm regions.