Male flowers: calyx closed in bud, later splitting into 2–3 valvate lobes; petals absent; disk glands extrastaminal, minute; stamens 15–40, filaments free, short, anthers basifixed, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent.
Female flowers: calyx 5–6-lobed, the lobes imbricate; petals absent; disk annular; ovary usually 3-locular, with 1 ovule per locule; styles usually 3, connate at the base, deeply bipartite, rigid, recurved-patent.
Leaves alternate, long-petiolate, stipulate, simple, large, more or less entire, minutely gland-dotted, palminerved.
Dioecious, or rarely monoecious, trees or shrubs with a stellate and sometimes also simple indumentum.
Inflorescences paniculate, terminal; male inflorescences larger and more branched than the female.
Seeds ovoid or ellipsoid, carunculate; testa crustaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat.
Fruit usually 3-lobed, septicidally dehiscent into 3 bivalved cocci; endocarp woody.