Trees or shrubs, usually glabrous. Leaves alternate, undivided, generally provided with pellucid glandular dots; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx usually inferior, 4–6-lobed or -partite, segments often ciliate. Corolla gamopetalous (rarely polypetalous), segments (or petals) 4–6, contorted or imbricated. Stamens opposite to the corolla-lobes and equal to them in number, free or adnate to the tube. Anthers oblong, 2-celled, sometimes coherent. Ovary usually superior, 1-celled; style single, stigma generally capitate; ovules few or many, inserted on a free central placenta. Fruit a one- to several-seeded drupe or berry. Seeds roundish or angular; albumen copious, sometimes pitted or ruminate; embryo usually transverse.

An order of considerable size (according to the most recent enumeration including over 30 genera and 900 species), widely spread over the warm regions of the globe, rare or absent in temperate climates, except in New Zealand. Economic properties unimportant. The single genus found in New Zealand has a wide range in the tropics of both hemispheres.