Trees or rarely shrubs, evergreen. Trunk bark usually smooth, rarely deeply splitting. Winter buds ovoid-globose, ovoid-conical, or rarely ovoid-ellipsoid; scales many, imbricate. Stipules extrapetiolar. Leaves spirally arranged. Male inflorescences pendulous; flowers loosely arranged or clustered on rachis; perianth usually 5-or 6-lobed; stamens as many as perianth lobes, sometimes less, filament slender; pistil rudimentary. Female inflorescences with a solitary flower or spiciform; cupules with 1 flower; perianth 5-or 6-lobed; staminodes sometimes present, small; ovary 3-loculed; styles (2 or)3(or 4); stigmas capitate or dilated. Cupules solitary; bracts scalelike, whorled, connate, in rings or spirally fused. Nut usually 1 per cupule; abortive ovule persisting in subapical, lateral, or basal part of seed. Germination hypogeal.
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