Glabrous shrubs or trees. Leaves micropunctate against strong light. Inflorescences axillary pedunculate slender panicles. Flowers small; calyx patelliform, deeply 4-dentate, small at anthesis but very much enlarged in fruiting stage; petals 4, linear-ligulate, free; disc-glands 4, petaloid, alternating with the petals; stamens 4, filaments connate to a cylindrical tube, anthers oblong, the thickish connectives concrescent to an annulus; ovary substipitate, 2-sulcate,2-locular below, with 2 ovules; style slender, clavate, as long as the staminal tube, stigma obtuse. A single drupe per infructescence, included in its lower half by the much enlarged calyx, pericarp coriaceous; endocarp woody, endosperm fleshy, containing amylum and fatty substances, with a small embryo at its apex, cotyledon orbicular, foliaceous.
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