Plants moderate, clustered, shrubby. Stems branched or unbranched, procumbent or ascending, covered with leafbases or becoming striate or smooth with age. Leaves: sheath fibers soft; petiole base not split; petiole armed with fine teeth, sometimes only at base of petiole; abaxial hastula not well-developed, obtuse; adaxial hastula usually well-developed, obtuse; costa absent; blade palmate; plication induplicate; segments lanceolate, basally connate, apices acute or 2-cleft; cross veins conspicuous. Inflorescences axillary within crown of leaves, paniculate, ascending, about as long as leaves, with 2--3 orders of branching; main axis bearing 2 peduncular bracts above prophyll; rachillae pubescent. Flowers bisexual, borne singly or in pairs along rachillae, sessile; perianth 2-seriate; calyx cupulate, ,3-lobed; petals 3, imbricate, elliptic, reflexed, alternate with outer whorl of stamens, basally adnate to filaments; stamens 6 in 2 whorls; filaments narrowly triangular, basally connate; anthers dorsifixed, versatile; pistils 3, distinct basally, glabrous; ovules 3, only 1 developing into fruit; styles connate, elongate, glabrous; nectaries 3, septal; stigma minutely 3-lobed, dry. Fruits drupes, ellipsoid; exocarp black, smooth; mesocarp blackish; endocarp brown, bony. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, with conspicuous longitudinal raphe; endosperm bony, homogeneous; embryo nearly basal; eophyll undivided, lanceolate. nx = 18.
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