Trees, shrubs, vines or herbs. Leaves opposite or whorled, simple, mostly entire and often gland-dotted; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual or unisexual and on separate plants, in terminal clusters or occasionally solitary. Sepals and petals 4 or 5, generally free. Stamens numerous in two 5-bundled whorls, sometimes free or free almost to the base; the outer whorl, which is sometimes absent, is usually sterile with bundles opposite the sepals. Carpels (2-)3-5(-20), fused. Styles free, fused or absent. Ovary superior, ovules numerous mostly with axile placentation. Fruit a capsule, occasionally a berry or drupe-like.
A family better known under the names Guttiferae and Hypericaceae and probably most closely related to families Theaceae and Dilleniaceae.
Several species are the source of edible fruits including Garcinia mangostana L., Mangosteen, and Mammea americana L., Mammey Apple. Many species are sources of timber; dyes are extracted from the bark; pigments, gums and resins from the stems; drugs from stems, flowers and leaves; fats and oil from the seeds.
47 genera and 1350 species cosmopolitan but mostly tropical.
Source: (1997). Clusiaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.