Dioecious or monoecious trees. Leaves subcoriaceous, petiolate, glabrous, with 5–10 pairs of lateral nerves. Inflorescences subglobose or capitate, dense, sessile or shortly pedunculate; bracts present; bracteoles absent. Male flowers with perianth ± funnel-shaped, 3–4-lobed; anthers 3–4, joined into a column slightly exceeding the joined filaments. Female flowers with perianth subglobose, 3–4-lobed; ovary globose; stigma sessile, indistinct. Fruits with fleshy pericarp, eventually splitting into 2 valves. Seed woody, ovoid or oblong-ellipsoid, with aril entire or only lobed at apex; endosperm hard, oily and starchy, not ruminate.