Shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple (imparipinnate in some New Cal. subsp.), sometimes with a few glands underneath. Flowers in axillary racemes or narrow thyrses, 3(-4-5)-merous, bisexual or unisexual (in New Cal. and the Seychelles); floral parts persistent. Bracts minute. Sepals more or less connate at the base, slightly imbricate in bud. Petals not touching, longer than sepals. Stamens twice as many as petals, in 2 distinct rows, inserted under the lower outer margin of the disk; filaments attached adaxially, versatile; cells latrorse, diverging at both ends, connective very short. Disk 3(-4-5)-lobed, each lobe forked. Carpels (1-)2(-3), connate; ovules sessile, anatropous; style horizontally adnate to its carpel, except for a short free patent tip; stigma small, rarely reniform. Fruit dry, (1-)2(-3)-celled, indehiscent, flattened, distinctly winged, more or less emarginate, rarely flattened, ovoid, acute. Seed attached adaxially nearly halfway down, with more or less albumen; testa thin; cotyledons planoconvex.
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