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Male flowers small, shortly pedicellate; sepals 5–8, unequal, united at the base, imbricate; petals absent; stamens 4–12, free, filaments inserted between the lobes of the disk, unequal, anthers dorsifixed, extrorse, minutely papillose, longitudinally widely dehiscent; disk central, thick, fleshy, lobate-sinuate, pubescent; pistillode filiform, minute or absent.
Female flowers: pedicels very short, lengthening slightly in fruit; sepals longer, narrower and stouter than in the male, but otherwise similar, persistent in fruit; disk hypogynous, annular, short, fleshy, crenellate; ovary 2–3-locular, with 2 ovules per locule; styles 2–3, short, connate at the base; stigmas ± reniform, shallowly 2–4-lobulate, caducous.
Fruits 2–3-locular, depressedobovoid-subglobose, tardily loculicidally dehiscent into 2–3 valves each with an attached septum; pericarp coriaceous; mesocarp crustaceous; endocarp chartaceous; columella persistent, often with the seeds attached.
Inflorescences axillary, solitary or geminate, cymose; male inflorescences subsessile or pedunculate, many-flowered, lax or capitate; female inflorescences pedunculate, the peduncles extending in fruit, 1–3-flowered.
Leaves alternate, opposite-decussate or verticillate in whorls of 3, long-petiolate, exstipulate, digitately 3–8-foliolate; leaflets subsessile or petiolulate, entire, penninerved, brochidodromous.
Seeds 1–2 per locule, usually 3 per fruit, somewhat compressed; exotesta fleshy; endotesta crustaceous; funicle thickened, carunculoid; albumen fleshy; embryo green, cotyledons broad, flat.
Dioecious pachycaul trees or shrubs with a simple indumentum.
Buds perulate (furnished with protective scales).
Twigs with prominent leaf scars.
