Trees, (in Mal.) evergreen, sometimes buttressed. Branchlets flat at the nodes, almost always dark to black. Stipules very small. Leaves decussate (occasionally in some branches sometimes subopposite or even alternate), the midrib frequently convex causing the blades to fold when pressed for herbarium purposes. Panicles, or sometimes racemes, axillary. Flowers bisexual, usually on articulated pedicels, with 2 to 5 small bracts at the articulation. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5, contorted, slightly concave, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, sometimes punctate. Disk fleshy, cupular, subentire, corrugated, rarely 5-lobed. Stamens 5, inserted inside the inner edge of the disk; disk-lobes alternate with the petals; filaments usually fusiform, gradually or abruptly narrowed towards the apex and transparent at the upper end, very rarely terete; anthers usually with an apical, pustular, lengthened connective, rarely this obscure or obtuse. Ovary superior or sometimes partly immersed in the disk, 3-celled, gradually narrowed into an obscure style; stigma thick and short-cylindric, ± capitate, or orbicular and flat, obtuse or sometimes obscurely 3-lobed. Ovules 6-16 in each cell, in two series, attached to the axis, superposed and ascending. Capsule oblong, bluntly 3-angular, 3-celled, loculicidally dehiscing, 3-valved. Seeds 6—10(-16?) in each cell, imbricate, erect, exalbuminous, with a conspicuous wing at the apical end, the wing very broad, oblong, truncate or blunt.
Lowland rain-forests, dryland, swampy or peat, rarely up to 1500 m.
Uses. THWAITES ( THWAITES Hook. J. Bot. Kew Misc. 5 1853 380 ) said that the pounded yellow bark of K. zeylanica is used by the Singhalese as a kind of cephalic snuff, being mixed with ghee (buffalo milk butter) and introduced into the nostrils in order to relieve severe headache.The bark of many (all?) species contains oil, seems easy to burn and is sometimes used for tinder.
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