Shrubs or trees. Stems erect; twigs glabrous. Leaves deciduous [persistent], alternate, sometimes seemingly whorled; petiole present; blade subcoriaceous, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal racemes, panicles, or cymes, 2-80-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary; perulae absent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric ; sepals [3-]5, ± distinct; petals 4-5, distinct or connate to 1/4 their lengths, corolla deciduous, rotate; stamens 8(-10), exserted; anthers without awns, dehiscent laterally; ovary 5-6-locular; style exserted; stigma expanded, discoid. Fruits capsular, spheroidal or oblate-spheroidal, dehiscence ± septicidal. Seeds 30-100, ovoid, flattened, not tailed, sometimes winged; testa pitted. x = 11.

Although Cladothamnus, Elliottia, and Tripetaleia were long treated as distinct genera, B. A. Bohm et al. (1978) concluded that they should be merged in a single genus. This was followed by P. F. Stevens et al. (2004). The two species endemic to Japan are E. bracteata Bentham & Hooker f. and E. paniculata Bentham & Hooker f.