Monoecious trees with a stellate indumentum. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or palmatilobed, petiolate, stipulate. Inflorescences terminal, thyrsiform, androgynous, protogynous, with a ♀ flower at the end of each major axis, and the lateral cymules ♂; bracts subulate, caducous. Male flowers: calyx closed in bud, later splitting valvately into 2-3 lobes; petals 5, free, imbricate; disc 5-lobed; stamens c. 20, the outer free, the inner ± united, anthers introrse; pistillode 0. Female flowers: calyx, petals and disc as in the ♂ f1s.; ovary 2(-3)-celled, with 1 ovule per cell; styles 2-3, thick, bibbed. Fruits large, drupaceous, indehiscent: exocarp fleshy; endocarp woody, sometimes 1-celled by abortion. Seeds ovoid, ecarunculate; testa thick, woody; albumen hard; embryo straight, cotyledons broad, flat.