Dioecious trees. Leaves spirally arranged, entire; stipules absent. Flowers in axillary or lateral panicles. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5, imbricate, each bearing a large pubescent scale inside at base. Male flowers: stamens 5, alternating with petals; anthers large, dorsiflxed, the locules laterally dehiscent; ovary rudimentary, pilose. Female flowers; staminodes 5, alternating with petals; ovary with 3 placentas, each with 1 ovule; stigmas 3, subsessile, foliaceous, crenate. Fruit a berry. Seeds globose with a hard irregularly pitted and grooved testa, an operculum and a thin aril.
Home