Trees, shrubs, or woody climbers; wood often with resin canals; leaves alternate or rarely opposite, usually compound, palmately or pinnately, or simple, often stellate-pubescent; stipules adnate to base of petiole, or intra-petiolar, or absent; petiole hence ligulate; flowers commonly but not always in umbels or heads, sometimes in racemes or epiphyllous, perfect, polygamous, or dioecious; calyx ubular, entire or toothed; petals 3-more, commonly 5, distinct or connate, imbricate or valvate; stamens many or as many as petals, distinct; anthers 2-celled; ovary inferior 1-more-celled, with free or connate styles; stigmas mostly subdistinct; ovule single in each ovary-cell, pendulous; fruit a berry or drupe; seeds endospermous. About 60 genera and 700 species in tropics and subtropics, some also in temperate regions, in both hemispheres. Two genera in Guam, one repreented by indigenous species.