Tree. Leaves spiral, penninerved; hairs, if any, of a dendritic type. Spikes simple or sometimes 1-or 2-branched, elongate, slender, the bisexual flowers interruptedly solitary or arranged in groups of 2-4. Calyx small, cup-shaped, 4-5-toothed, not accrescent. Petals (3-) 4 (-5), free to almost the base. Stamens generally 2, rarely 1 or 3 before each petal and adherent to its base; filaments linear-subulate; anthers subglobular-didymous. Staminodes 0. Disk hypogynous, fleshy, shallow, rather inconspicuous. Ovary superior, incompletely (2-) 3 (-4)-celled below, 1-celled above; ovules bitegmic, each one pendent from the top of a free basal placenta into the cell; style short, cylindric; stigma minute, 3-lobed. Drupe subglobose; pericarp thin; endocarp woody. Seed 1, mainly containing starch, and very little fatty substances in the form of oil-droplets; embryo very small in the apex of the endosperm.
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