Dioecious, more rarely andromonoecious tree. Leaves spirally arranged and crowded at the ends of the branches, long-petioled, in young trees 3-lobed, in old ones broadly ovate, with cordate to truncate base, acute-acuminate, palmately-nerved. Stipules 0. Flowers usually unisexual, but the terminal flowers of the male inflorescence sometimes hermaphrodite; male flowers in few-flowered pseudoracemes, female flowers mostly solitary in the axils of the upper leaves. Pedicels elongate, articulated above the middle, with one (fl. male) or several (fl. female) linear, caducous, basal bracts. Calyx closed before anthesis, nearly globose, disrupted afterwards irregularly in 2-3(-4) caducous segments. Petals (4-)5-8(-9), imbricate, each with a large, vaulted, thick, hairy scale inside at the base. ♂ Flowers: stamens 20-25(-31), free; filaments thick, flat, with a linear stripe of hairs ventrally; anthers minute, ovate, dorsifixed. Rudiment of pistillode 0. ♀ Flowers: staminodes as many as petals, rarely more, alternating with them. Ovary thick-walled, with 2-4 many-ovuled placentas; stigma sessile, discoid, rounded or nearly trigonous, with (2-)3-5 short, impressed rays, slightly lobed at the margin. Fruit large, indehiscent; pericarp coriaceous. Seeds many, large, transversal-or triangular-ovoid, in an oily and fleshy, sweet, aromatic, edible pulp. Testa hard, reticulate-ribbed, with a linear hilum. Endosperm large, oily.
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