Trees or shrubs, sometimes scandent. Stipules absent. Leaves petiolate; lamina coriaceous or chartaceous; primary nerves usually prominent, straight or curved, closely parallel or widely spaced and then usually with longitudinal or transverse vein reticulum; lower surface often with sericeous indumentum. Flowers clustered in current or fallen leaf axils, subsessile or pedicellate, hermaphrodite, normally 5-merous. Sepals 5, ± free to base. Corolla ± equal in length to sepals or longer; lobes usually 5, ± equal in length to or shorter than the cylindrical or campanulate tube. Stamens same number as corolla-lobes and opposite, inserted at throat. Staminodes normally absent, but may be irregularly present. Ovary subglobose to broadly conical, densely pilose, normally 5-locular; ovules solitary with lateral or basi-lateral attachment; style short and stout, ± equal length of ovary or rarely longer. Fruit a subglobose to ovoid or ellipsoid berry; pericarp fleshy or subcoriaceous. Seeds several or sometimes solitary; testa hard and shiny; scar lateral and narrow or sometimes (and not in Africa) broad and extending over the seed surface; endosperm present; embryo with flattened foliaceous cotyledons; radicle basal.