Shrubs to medium-sized trees, some vines. Leaves alternate to almost verticillate (Paracryphia), simple, margins finely serrate or sometimes entire; stipules absent; dense pubescence on young leaves, absent on mature foliage. Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes or compound spikes, bisexual or unisexual (plants andromonoecious); perianth differentiated into 4–5 sepals and 4–5 white, free, deciduous petals (Quintinia), or with undifferentiated perianth of 4 caducous, decussate, concave, free, imbricate segments (Paracryphia); stamens 4–5 (Quintinia) or ca. 8 (Paracryphia) in a single whorl; anthers basifixed, tetrasporangiate, with longitudinal dehiscence; ovary superior (Paracryphia) or inferior (Quintinia); 8–15- (Paracryphia) or 3–5-locular (Quintinia), ovules 4 per locule (Paracryphia) or numerous; style elongated with 3–5-lobed stigma (Quintinia), or absent (Paracryphia). Fruit capsular, septicidal; seeds small, winged in Paracryphia and mostQuintina, copiously endospermic.