Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate; lamina entire, pinnately veined, oil-dotted. Flowers bisexual, axillary or terminal, protogynous, usually solitary, sometimes 2 or 3, each enclosed in a calyptrate floral envelope formed from a bract fused around the floral axis and opening by abscission or partial laceration; peduncle bracteate. Perianth absent. Androecium of spirally arranged outer stamens and inner petaloid staminodes, abscissing entirely as a synandrium following anthesis. Stamens with a laminar base, reflexed or erect; anthers introrse to latrorse; pollen sacs separated; connective thickened, produced. Staminodes with glandular hair tufts functioning as osmophores, imbricate, spreading during female phase to expose gynoecium, reclosing at onset of male phase. Carpels numerous, spirally arranged, unsealed, connate by their margins; stigmas distinct or contiguous, sessile; ovules 2-several per carpel, anatropous. Fruit aggregate, berry-like, with a rim left by abscission of calyptra; carpels usually 1-or 2-seeded, immersed in fleshy receptacle. Seeds with ruminate endosperm.
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