Plants trees or shrubs, unarmed, without latex, glabrous. bLeavesb opposite on flowering shoots, alternate on vegetative shoots; stipules free or more or less united. Inflorescences peduncalate, simple, dichasia, axillary cymes. Flowers bisexual; sepals 5, imbricate; petals 5, white or greenish, imbricate in bud; stamens (4-)5, filaments slender, united with the base of the nectary disk, anthers introrse, dehiscing longitudinally; nectary discks intrastaminal, single, concave. thin, shallowly 5-lobed; ovaries sessile, 3-celled, with 2 erect ovules in each cell; styles 3, free, stigmas 3. Fruits capsules, elongate, dehiscing loculiciidally; seeds 1-3, without arils, with a wing developed betwee the point of attachment.
Catha includes only one species, Catha edulis. It is widespread in eastern tropical Africa.