See text The Styracaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, containing 12 genera and about 160 species of trees and shrubs.

[1][2] The family is characterised by spirally arranged simple leaves with no stipules; symmetrical white flowers with a corolla of two to five (sometimes seven) fused petals; and the fruit usually is a dry capsule, sometimes winged, less often a fleshy drupe, with one or two seeds.

Most are large shrubs to small trees 3–15 m tall, but Halesia monticola (H. carolina var.

monticola) is larger, with trees 39 m tall known in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.

Several genera include species popular as ornamental trees valued for their decorative white flowers.