Tree, andromonoecious. Leaves opposite, simple, exstipulate; lamina entire, pinnately veined. Inflorescence of 1–4 flowers, axillary or terminal; peduncle with 2 or 3 nodes bearing decussate, caducous bracts. Flowers male or bisexual, sessile and articulate above top pair of bracts. Hypanthium bearing 30–40 spirally arranged, imbricate tepals; lowermost ones broad, sepaloid, enclosing flower in bud, caducous; succeeding ones smaller, narrower; c. 15–18 uppermost tepals persistent, spreading. Stamens at rim of hypanthium, inflexed, tepal-like, thick with almost no filament; anthers extrorse, suprabasal. Staminodes similar to stamens, inner ones smaller, hood-shaped. Carpels 0 or 1–3 (–5), free; stigma subsessile, broad, fleshy, obliquely terminal; ovules 1, rarely 2, basal, anatropous. Fruit large, globose or depressed-globose, indehiscent; hypanthium forming on a thin, brittle outer layer crowned by persistent inner tepals and stamens and a spongy inner layer; pericarp thin, appressed to hypanthium wall. Seed usually solitary; testa thin, adhering to pericarp; endosperm absent; cotyledons 3 or 4, massive, fleshy, peltately attached.
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