Dioecious trees. Leaves spiral, simple and entire or lobed, not rarely pinnatisect, sessile or petioled. Racemes simple, many-flowered, axillary or ramiflorous. Bracts subulate, small, or linear-elongate, ± persistent or ± caducous. Bracteoles minute, ± caducous. Pedicels mostly in twos, free or connate up to 4/5 their length. Perianth straight, tube rather slender, limb clavate or ellipsoid, attenuate towards the base in the male flowers, dilated at the base by the swollen ovary in the female flowers; segments 4, revolute in anthesis. Stamens 4, sessile or nearly so, inserted at the base of the limb; anthers oblong, with pollen only in the male flowers, similar in shape but without pollen in the female flowers; connective apiculate; exine reticulate. Disk glands 4, free, mostly approximate and seemingly forming a cup. Ovary sessile. Style slender, clavate towards the apex, stigma punctiform, terminal. Ovules 2, orthotropous, hanging from the top of the cavity, fertile only in the female flowers, reduced in size or absent in the male ones. Drupe: exocarp leathery, rather thin, mostly soon dissolved, sometimes ± persistent; mesocarp formed by very numerous radial +-soft fibres, persistent, sometimes early dissolved or nearly absent; endocarp hard, woody at least in the inner part, mostly rather thick, the outer face reticulate-lacunose, the lacunae sometimes perforated. Seed 1, nearly globose, or seeds 2, hemispherical, wrinkled in the upper part; testa thin; cotyledons large, fleshy.
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Trees, dioecious. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, many lobed, or pinnatipartite. Inflorescences axillary or ramiflorous, rarely terminal on short branchlets, simple, a raceme of flower pairs; bracts of flower pairs linear, subulate, or lanceolate, ± persistent; floral bracts often caducous. Perianth tube straight, slender; limb clavate to ellipsoid, basally dilated, segments revolute at anthesis. Stamens subsessile, inserted at base of limb; anthers oblong; connective apiculate; staminodes present in female flowers. Pollen grains triporate, exine reticulate. Hypogynous glands 4, free, close together. Ovary sessile; ovules 2, orthotropous. Style apically mostly clavate; stigma terminal or lateral, punctiform; pistillode present in male flowers. Fruit drupaceous, exocarp leathery, thin; mesocarp carnose, spongy, or with numerous radial soft fibers, sometimes fibers nearly absent when dry; endocarp hard, woody, rarely thin, outer face reticulate-lacunose. Seed 1 and ± globose or seeds 2 and hemispheric, testa thin, cotyledons fleshy.
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