Dioecious trees. Leaves spirally arranged, large, rather shortly petioled. Stipules foliaceous, caducous. Flowers unisexual, in simple and panicled, axillary racemes. Calyx calyptriform, disrupting irregularly from the apex or laterally. Petals 5, imbricate, each with a lanceolate, fleshy, hirsute scale adnate to the inner side of the base. ♂ Flowers: stamens 5, alternating with the petals; filaments stout, terete; anthers oblong, dorsifix. Rudiment of ovary sometimes present. ♀ Flowers: staminodes 0. Ovary sessile, with 3 placentas, each with 1 (rarely 2) ovules. Styles 3, short, divergent; stigmas dilatate, reniform, crenate. Fruit spherical, berry-like, indehiscent, 1-3-seeded; pericarp crustaceous when dry. Seeds with oily endosperm, testa bony.
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