Shrubs or trees, dioecious. Twigs often somewhat compressed, lenticellate, not flaky. Leaves rarely brittle when dry, lower surface pale, not papillose, dots absent; reticulation lax, faint. Inflorescences paniculate, branched from near the base (female more condensed); flowers in loose clusters, all in the same stage of development; basal cataphylls caducous; bracts caducous. Flowers short-pedicellate, bracteole absent. Male flowers: perianth urceolate, membranous or leathery, inside pubescent, yellow; buds ellipsoid, cleft to about 1/2 or less, lobes (2 or) 3 or 4, slightly outcurved (in female ± reflexed); androecium sessile or with short and narrow androphore, synandrium (long-)ellipsoid, with 5-12 linear anthers, dorsally connate to the central column, laterally and at apices free, the connective sometimes slenderly protruding. Female flowers: shorter and wider than male, ± ovoid; ovary broadly ovoid, pubescent, stigma small, sessile, 2-lobed, each lobe entire or 3-6-lobulate. Infructescences paniculate, several-fruited. Fruits ellipsoid (globose in G. canarica, S India), 2-3.5 cm long, hairy or glabrescent; pericarp thick-leathery; aril laciniate to near the base (as in Myristica); seeds not variegated; albumen ruminate, containing a fixed oil, starch absent; cotyledons divaricate, connate at base.
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