Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, simple. Flowers white in clusters with a cup-like calyx. Petals with 5(8) deep lobes. Stamens 10(-16). Ovary superior with 3 chambers at the base and 1 above. Fruit a drupe.
Two species are cultivated: S. japonicus Siebold & Zucc., Japanese Snowbell or Snowdrop Tree has elliptic leaves to about 8 cm long, more or less hairless and flowers 3-6 per cluster; and S. obassia Siebold & Zucc., Fragrant Snowbell, has more or less ovate leaves to about 25 cm long that are distinctly hairy below and flowers many in a cluster.
Seed, layers or occasionally cuttings or grafting.
Tropical species of SE Asia are the source of balsam resins (e.g. storax, benzoin) and incense, used medicinally as an antiseptic.
About 120 species mostly of tropical and warm temperate northern hemisphere, from W Malesia, SE Asia, tropical America and the Mediterranean.
Source: (1997). Styracaceae. 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.
