Trees, shrubs, or climbers; leaves simple, alternate, entire; stipules none. Flowers bisexual or, rarely, unisexual; sepals usually 3, free or slightly connate basally, valvate or imbricate; petals 6, hypogynous, or 3; stamens many hypogynous, closely crowded, filaments short; anthers adnate; connective produced into a knob or disc; carpels 1 or usually many, free (rarely connate), with distinct stigmas; style short or lacking; carpels often stipitate in fruit; ovules 1 to many; endosperm ruminate. About 120 genera and 1200 species, chiefly tropical, many in the Old World. One genus native and endemic in the Marianas; one possibly native; and one introduced, from Tropical America.