Habit: tree, evergreen

Sexuality: monoecious

Branches: whorled

Important diagnostics: with reddish brown to dark gray bark, with pyramidal or ovoid or columnar crown, with keeled lateral leaf surfaces

Leaves: Position: spirally arranged, 5-ranked

Pollen Cone: Position: axillary

Seed Cones: Position: terminal, solitary, aggregate

Seed Cones: Shape: rosettelike

Seed Cones: Bract scales: triangular

Seed scales: adnate with bracts in basal, shield-shaped, cuneate

Seeds: Shape: irregularly compressed-ellipsoid

Cotyledons number: 2, 3, 4

Germination: epigeal