Elaeodendron Jacq.

Trees or shrubs, without latex, glabrous; branches terete to lined, unarmed, not forming short shoots. Leaves all opposite or subopposite to alternate towards the base of the shoot, rarely heteromorphic, petiolate; stipules free, small, caducous. Inflorescence pedunculate to sessile, regularly dichasial, few–many-flowered, single or on specialised shoots forming “panicles” in axils of foliage leaves or prophylls; bracts persistent. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, sometimes polygamous or dioecious, with or without staminodes and well-developed pistillodes, pedicellate, with pedicels articulated at or above the base. Sepals 4–5, unequal or equal, imbricate, united at the base, with margin entire or rarely finely serrulate. Petals 4–5, green to white or yellow, imbricate in bud, spreading. Disc intrastaminal, single, thick, convex to concave, entire or shallowly 4–5-angled or-lobed. Stamens 4–5, with filaments thin, united with the base of the disc; anthers versatile, introrse, with separate thecae dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, sessile, ± deeply immersed in the disc, 2–3(–?4)-locular, with (1–)2 erect collateral ovules in each locule; style short, pyramidal, simple; stigma small, entire or slightly 2–3-lobed. Fruit drupaceous, hard or ± fleshy. Seeds 1–2(–3), exarillate, not winged, without endosperm.