Shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple or compound, terete or flattened, rigid, sometimes broad. Inflorescence a dense spike or 'cone', terminal or axillary, ±globose or ovoid, sessile or pedunculate, solitary or several clustered; receptacle cylindrical to concave; involucral bracts usually present, somewhat more persistent than cone scales; cone scales tomentose to villous outside, glabrous inside, deciduous after flowering or shed with the fruit; floral bracts absent. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, sessile. Tepals spreading at anthesis; upper part decidous; basal part persisting until the fruit expands on ripening. Stamens 4, sessile, with a short connective. Hypogynous glands absent. Ovary sessile, 1-locular; ovules 1 (-2), pendulous; style filiform, straight; pollen presenter usually dilated or clavate, often separated from the brush by a constriction, with various parts glabrous or hairy, rarely fusiform, with a very small stigma, otherwise the tip slightly enlarged to form a stigmatic cup. Fruiting cones not persisting; scales separating readily. Fruit a small, hairy nut, not compressed or winged.
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