Trees, glabrous. Leaves simple, penninerved, entire; beneath the upper epidermis a hypodermal layer which contains mucilage. Stipules intra-petiolar, soon caducous. Inflorescence a panicle. Flowers bisexual. Sepals 5, imbricate, connate towards the base. Petals 5, free, imbricate. Stamens 10, free, sigmoid-folded in bud. Disk intrastaminal, 10-lobed. Ovary 5-celled with 1 pendent anatropous-epitropous ovule centrally attached near the apex of each cell; style terminal, sigmoid-folded in bud. Fruit a septicidal and incompletely loculicidal capsule, the valve-halves becoming slightly twisted after dehiscence, detaching, leaving a central columella; the (often aborted) seeds are attached to an enlarged placenta towards the apex of the columella. In A. multicaule the young fruit is ± drupaceous. Seeds shining and waxy, cotyledons planoconvex, radicle pointing upwards; plumule very small.
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