Trees, the pubescence of stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, the stipules large and deciduous, the blade entire or serrate to serrulate, 3-pal-minerved. Inflorescences unisexual or androgynous, of axillary or terminal panicles or umbelliform cymes. Flowers imperfect, actinomorphous, pedicellate, bracteolate, the bractlets caducous, (4-)5-merous; calyx valvate, the sepals free; petals free, imbricate, somewhat shorter than the sepals, glandular-thickened within at the base, rounded to more or less lobulate at the apex; gonophore naked, crowned by an undulate and densely velutinous urceolus surrounding the base of the stamens; stamens numerous, staminodial in the female flowers, the filaments free; anthers 2-thecate, introrse, medifixus, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary superior, sessile, 2(-3))-celled, rudimentary in the male flowers, the cells many-ovulate; style simple, obsolete in the male flowers; stigma bilobulate. Capsules coriaceous, compressed contrary to the partition, the margins sometimes expanded into a small wing, loculicidally 2(-3)-valvate, the cells many-seeded; seeds rather small, broadly ellipsoid, somewhat flattened, long-ciliate along the margins; albumen copious; embryo straight; cotyledons flat.
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