Plants shrubs or trees, usually dioecious, often with simple or branched spines. Leaves entire to crenate or dentate. Inflorescences of solitary flowers or short racemes. Flowers with sepals, not petals; sepals (3-)4-6(-7), subimbricate to almost valvate; staminate flowers: 10-50(-80) stamens, small disk-glands present between the staments; pistillate flowers: ovary 1-celled or incompletely 2-4(-8) celled, surrounded by a cupular or annular disk; styles usually as many as cells in the ovary. Fruits fleshy, few-seeded.
Dovyalis includes 15 species, 14 of which are native to Africa, 1 to Ceylon.