Description: Trees or shrubs, dioecious, evergreen or deciduous.
Leaves alternate, mostly imparipinnate, crowded at end of branchlets; leaflets opposite or ± opposite, lower surface with surface glands; stipules minute or absent.
Inflorescences axillary, paniculate. Calyx mostly 5-lobed. Petals mostly 6. Stamens 10 in male flowers, shorter or absent in females. Disc 10-lobed. Carpels 2–5, ovaries free; ovule solitary in each carpel; styles free or fused; stigmas fused; carpels sometimes vestigial in male flowers.
Fruit a cluster or 1–5 samaras; seed without endosperm.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 5 species, tropical & subtropical regions from Turkestan through India, Asia & Australia to Solomon Is. Australia: 3 species (2 species native, 1 species naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., Vic.
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Evergreen plant; leaflets less than 22 mm wide, entire, not glandular; petals glabrous or almost so | Ailanthus triphysa |
| Deciduous plant; leaflets more than 22 mm wide, lobed near base, lobes glandular at apex; petals woolly at base | Ailanthus altissima |
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