Shrubs, sometimes sarmentose, or trees. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate or rarely 1-foliolate; leaflets petiolulate; tertiary nerves generally collected into an oblique nerve, directed towards the angle between the midrib and the lateral nerves. Flowers dioecious, 5-merous, in axillary or terminal branched panicles. male flowers: calyx ± cupuliform, shallowly 5-lobulate or -dentate; petals valvate, or sometimes imbricate, longer than the calyx; stamens 10–20, filaments subulate, inserted below and on the disk, anthers dorsifixed, introrse; disk crenulate, glabrous; pistillode absent. Female flowers: perianth similar to the male; staminodes usually 5, small; ovary free, ovoid, 1-locular, the ovule pendent, apical; style 1 with a 3-lobed stigma, persisting on the fruit. Drupe ellipsoid or asymmetrically ovoid; mesocarp thin, fleshy; endocarp chartaceous or woody. Seed ellipsoid.