Trees, erect or scandent shrubs, lianas, evergreen or deciduous; stems sometimes producing rootlets (Euonymus spp.), sometimes thorny (Maytenus spp.), rarely with buttressed trunks. Leaves simple, alternate or opposite, petiolate; leaf blade laminar, venation pinnate, secondary veins reticulate, margins entire, crenate, serrate, or dentate; stipules small and caducous, or estipulat