Trees, shrubs, or climbers, rarely herbs, with milky sap; leaves opposite or whorled, simple (rarely alternate); stipules none`, cymes terminal or axillary; flowers regular, perfect; calyx 4-5-lobed, lobes imbricate; corolla 4-5-lobed, lobes imbricate and convolute in bud; stamens 4-5, adnate to the corolla; ovary 2-celled, the cells free as separate carpels (at least in fruit) but contiguous in flower, the apices (style) usually connate; a disc sometimes present at base; ovules mostly rather numerous; fruit generally of the two matured carpels, these follicular (or 1 aborting), divergent, usually dehiscent by the upper suture, rarely baccate or drupaceous; seeds generally with a tuft of hairs. A large family of about 130 genera and more than 1200 species, chiefly of the tropics. Twelve genera in Guam, of which four include indigenous species.