Trees, evergreen; branchlets stout, with distinct nodes. Leaves alternate, long petiolate; stipules large, leathery, coherent, caducous, leaving annular scar at each node; leaf blade simple or, in saplings and young shoots, palmately 3–5-lobed, thickly leathery, margin entire, venation palmate. Inflorescence capitate, sometimes in compound racemes, usually axillary, pedunculate, 7–16-flowered. Flowers bisexual, initially enclosed by a pair of stipules. Floral cup adnate to ovary base. Petals absent or 2–5, white, linear, straight in bud. Stamens 10–15; filaments varying in length, subulate; anthers oblong or ovoid, thecae 1-sporangiate, each dehiscing by 1 valve, connective apiculate. Ovary semi-inferior; ovules 5 or 6 per locule; styles somewhat elongated; stigmas decurrent, caducous in fruit. Infructescences globose or subglobose. Capsules dehiscing loculicidally by 4 valves; exocarp usually smooth, sometimes tuberculate. Seeds 5–7 in each locule, upper 4 or 5 sterile and wingless, lower 1 or 2 fertile and narrowly winged, embryo scant, fleshy; cotyledon compressed. 2n = 32.
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