Glabrous shrubs, sometimes small and almost herbaceous; branches angular, the lower opposite. Leaves opposite or rarely in whorls of 3, entire, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamous, small, usually in axillary racemes. Sepals 5, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5, hypogynous, smaller than the sepals, keeled within, enlarged after flowering and becoming thick and fleshy and embracing the fruit. Stamens 10, hypogynous, free, or the alternate ones adnate to the petals; filaments short; anthers large. Disc absent. Carpels 5–10, free, 1-celled, whorled on a short conical receptacle; styles as many as the carpels, free, thick, elongated, covered for the whole length with stigmatic papillæ ovules solitary, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit of 5–10 oblong indehiscent cocci, closely embraced by the fleshy and juicy petals, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed with a membranous testa; albumen a thin layer only; embryo with plano-convex cotyledons and a superior radicle.

A small order of very doubtful relationship, comprising the single genus Coriaria. Species 8 or 10, found in New Zealand, South America, Japan, China, the Himalayas, north Africa, and south Europe.