Small trees or shrubs evergreen; bark grayish white. Branches terete, nodes sometimes with spines. Winter buds not formed. Leaves alternate, petiolate, orbicular or elliptic, leathery, pinnately veined, lateral veins conspicuous, mostly not reaching to near apex, margin entire. Inflorescences axillary, catkinlike, short spikes, pendulous; male inflorescences sometimes in clusters. Flowers bisexual or unisexual (plants trioecious). Male flowers: perianth tube rigid, short, lobes 5, usually distinct beyond disk, valvate or slightly imbricate in buds. Stamens 5, on base of lobes; filaments short, cells divaricate, dehiscence transverse. Discs obtusely square, becoming circular, margin slightly prominent, wavy lobed. Female flowers: perianth tube ovoid, adnate to ovary, lobes similar to those of males. Ovary inferior; ovules 3. Style rather strong, short; stigma scutiform, large, 3-5-lobed. Bisexual flowers similar to female but with fertile stamens. Fruit a berrylike drupe, obovoid to pear-shaped, large, base gradually narrowed to form a long stalk, apex slightly raised, relatively narrow, with persistent perianth lobes and relatively narrow rudimentary disk (to 2.5 mm wide), exocarp thickly fleshy, endocarp rigid. Seeds subglobose; embryo terete.
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