Shrubs or trees. Leaves persistent, alternate, petiolate, entire or undulate, penninerved, stipulate. Flowers in short axillary spike-like racemes; pedicels articulate at the base, elongate in the terminal bisexual flower, short in the lower ♂ ones; subtending bracts several, membranous, small. Sepals 3, imbricate, small. Petals 5–7, imbricate, small. Male flowers: stamens numerous; filaments filiform; anthers subovate-oblong, dorsifixed near the base, longitudinally dehiscent; rudiment of ovary 0. Hermaphrodite flowers: sepals and petals as in the ♂ ones, though slightly larger; stamens less numerous (35–50); ovary unilocular, sessile, with 2–4 multi-ovulate placentas, shortly 4.6(–8)-winged; style short; stigmas (2–)3(–4), divergent, reflexed. Fruit globular, woody, tardily dehiscent, with 4–6 (–8) short membranous crenate wings. Seeds numerous, ovoid, small.
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