Description from
Flora of China
Sutherlandia J. F. Gmelin (1792), not R. Brown (1812), nom. cons.
Trees, usually with buttress. Leaves alternate, simple or palmately compound, abaxially usually scaly. Inflorescence cymose, paniculate, axillary, many-flowered, hairy or scaly. Flowers unisexual. Calyx campanulate or urceolate, 4-6-lobed. Petals absent. Male flowers: androgynophore short. Anthers 4-15, in 1 or 2 rings at apex of androgynophore, with pistillode. Female flowers: ovary with 3-5 coherent carpels, base with sterile anthers; ovules 1 per carpel. Style very short; stigma very small. Fruit woody or leathery, with keel-like prominence or wing, indehiscent. Seeds without endosperm.
About 35 species: tropical Africa, Asia, and Australasia; three species in China.