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Inflorescences axillary or borne on old wood, racemose, solitary or fasciculate, shortly pedunculate or not, strobiliform at first, later laxly flowered; bracts broad, concave, ciliate, persistent; male inflorescences 1–more-flowered; female inflorescences usually 1-flowered; bracteoles 2.Male flowers pedicellate, pedicels jointed near the base; calyx closed in bud, later splitting into 2–5 membranous valvate lobes; petals 5–8, free, imbricate; receptacle convex, covered in contiguous disk glands, pubescent; stamens 20–55, free, erect in bud, arising from pits in the glandular surface, anthers fixed at apex, extrorse, the thecae almost free, pendulous from a thickened glandular apiculate connective, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode reduced or absent.
Female flowers: pedicels stouter than in the male, jointed near the base; calyx and petals resembling those of the male; disk hypogynous, annular, thickened, alveolate; staminodes often present, filiform, arising from the alveoli; ovary 3-locular, with 1 ovule per locule; styles 3, almost free, bipartite, the stigmas papillose.
Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, stipellate or not, simple, entire, subentire or remotely and shallowly serrulate-denticulate, penninerved, with 2–4 glands at the top of the petiole or on the upper surface of the lamina at the base.
Seeds subglobose, ecarunculate; testa crustaceous, shiny; albumen thick, fleshy; embryo straight or slightly curved; cotyledons broad, flat.
Fruit 3-locular, dehiscing into 3 bivalved cocci; endocarp thinly woody; columella persistent, apically tricornute.
Stipules fused into an elongate sheath, which on falling leaves a distinct annular scar.
Indumentum simple (± confined to the inflorescences).
Dioecious shrubs or small trees.
