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Trees or shrubs , evergreen. Terminal buds present, ovate, all scales imbricate. Leaves: stipules prominent on new growth, persistent around buds. Leaf blade leathery, margins entire or obscurely toothed to serrate, secondary veins unbranched, ± parallel, extending to margin. Inflorescences staminate and androgynous, axillary, often appearing terminal and branched by reduction of leaves, spicate, erect or ascending, rigid or flexible; androgynous inflorescences with pistillate cupules/flowers toward base and staminate flowers distally. Staminate flowers: sepals distinct; stamens 12(-18 or more) typically surrounding indurated pistillode covered with silky hairs. Pistillate flower 1 per cupule; sepals distinct; carpels and styles 3. Fruits: maturation in 2d year following pollination; cupule cup-shaped, without any indication of valves, covering proximal portion of nut, scaly, spines absent, scales strongly reflexed, hooked at tip; nut 1 per cupule, round in cross section, not winged. x = 12.
Trees or rarely shrubs, evergreen. Winter buds terminal, ovoid to ellipsoid, scales spirally imbricate. Stipules extrapetiolar. Leaves spirally arranged. Inflorescences male, female, or androgynous, in leaf axils toward base of branchlets or in a dense paniculate cluster on subterminal shoots, ± erect. Male inflorescences erect, simple or branched; flowers usually 3-5(-7) in dichasial clusters; perianth 4-6-lobed; stamens 10-12; rudimentary pistil small, enclosed by hairs. Female flowers solitary or in clusters of (2 or)3(-5), 1 or 2(or 3) well developed; perianth 6-lobed; staminodes 10-12; ovary 3(-6) loculed; styles (2 or)3(-5), (0.5-)1-2(-3) mm; stigmas a terminal pore. Cupules grouped together in cymes on rachis but often many aborted, corky, horny, woody, or crustaceous, completely or partly enclosing nut; bracts variously shaped. Nut 1 per cupule. Germination hypogeal; cotyledons flat-convex (although surface between cotyledons may not be completely flat).
