Large trees to small trees, or climbers. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; not peeling in strips. Slash gray. Vertical stripes in the inner bark or wood absent. Odor absent. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum absent.
Leaves opposite, or spiral; not scale-like; simple; of different sorts on a single twig, or all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous, or leathery; gland-dotted (Salacia macrophylla), or not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; wavy margined, or with small to large teeth on margin. Epidermis waxy, or not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent. Smallest veins prominent, or not prominent, but visible; net like, or ladder like. Intramarginal vein present. Stalk of blade less than a quarter the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen. Stipules present; free from one another; laterally placed; not encircling the twig; scale-like; not fringed; small; not persistent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf absent.
Inflorescences present; axillary; the flowers from a single point on the stem, or on a branched axis; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers bisexual; stalked; with the p