Plants somewhat arborescent, the caudex erect, often very thick and solid, simple or sparsely branched, frequently supported by prop roots, sometimes covered with small prickles, leafy above; petioles vaginate to the middle or higher, clasping at the base, the sheath produced at the apex into a ligule; blades sagittate, the basal lobes shorter or longer than the anterior one, the primary nerves united to form a collective nerve close to the margin; peduncles usually solitary, shorter than the leaves; spathe large and thick, convolute below, open above, finally deciduous; spadix slightly shorter than the spathe, the pistillate portion cylindric, densely many-flowered, short, the staminate portion contiguous to the pistillate, very densely many-flowered; flowers monoecious, naked; staminate flowers with 3-6 stamens, these distinct, obpyramidal-prismatic, contiguous, truncate at the apex, the filaments obsolete; anthers subsessile, 2-celled, the cells oblong, acutish, de-hiscent by a short apical slit; pistil of the pistillate flower subprismatic-obovoid, sessile, 1-celled; ovules 1-2, ascending, anatropous; style not sharply differentiated from the ovary, the stigma sessile, orbicular; fruit large, baccate, spongious, excavate at the apex and radiately costate, 1-celled and 1-seeded; seed obovoid, the testa smooth, brown; endosperm none.
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