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Shrublets, suffrutices, shrubs or trees, with the young parts and inflorescences stellately tomentose. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate or 3-foliolate or rarely 1-foliolate, usually clustered at the end of the branches; leaflets entire, sessile or petiolulate. Panicles terminal or axillary, ± branched and pyramidal or spike-like (the lateral branches very short), often arising before the leaves. Male flowers: calyx 4-partite, the segments imbricate; petals 4, imbricate; stamens 8 with the filaments subulate inserted below the disk; anthers ovate or sagittate, dorsifixed; disk ± cup-shaped, 8-crenulate with a 4-cleft vestigial ovary at the centre. Female flowers: perianth similar to that of the male flowers; staminodes short; ovary ovoid or subglobose, 4-locular, with 2–3 abortive loculi; ovule pendent from a long funicle attached at the apex of the loculus; styles 3–4, subterminal; stigmas ± capitate. Drupe obovoid or ovoid, ± compressed or subglobose; mesocarp thin; endocarp woody, the surface unequally ridged and alveolate, with 1–2 ovate opercules at the apex. Seeds ± reniform, compressed; cotyledons plano-convex.