Small trees to shrubs (rare), or climbers. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; peeling in strips. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum present, or absent; sparse.
Leaves two-ranked; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous to leathery; not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined. Epidermis waxy, or not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent. Smallest veins prominent to not visible; net like, or ladder like. Intramarginal vein present, or absent. Stalk of blade less than a quarter the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen. Stipules absent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf present, or absent; dense, or sparse.
Inflorescences represented by solitary flowers only; leaf-opposed, or superaxillary. Flowers bisexual; about 0.5 cm long or across to to about 3 cm long or across; round; with male or female parts not raised on a column. Hyp