Trees to 40 m tall, dioecious, monoecious, andro-dioecious, or hermaphroditic. Petiole short or absent; leaf blade venation arcuately looped near margin. Inflorescences on young branches [rarely on trunks], rhipidial, solitary or in clusters; peduncle short [or long]; sympodial rachis internodes short [or long]. Flowers unisexual [or bisexual], pendent. Pedicel short or long, with submedian bracteoles. Sepals 3, valvate, free or basally connate, membranous. Petals 6, in 2 whorls, free, with each whorl valvate; outer petals generally shorter than inner petals, generally without basal claw, membranous; inner petals sometimes with adaxial glands, base generally clawed, apically connivent to form a mitriform dome. Male flowers: stamens [7-]46-56[-153], cuneate, extrorse, often with a ring of staminodes; connectives apically truncate. Female flowers: staminodes [0-]7-9[-20]; carpels [1-]7-14[-30], free; ovules [1-]5 or 6[-20] per carpel, in [1 or]2 series. Fruit apocarpous; monocarps shortly stipitate [or sessile], generally globose [or ellipsoid], mostly with longitudinal groove, [smooth or] rugose. Seeds smooth or rugose.

About 56 species: tropical and subtropical Asia; one species in China.

(Authors: Li Bingtao (李秉滔 Li Ping-tao); Yvonne C. F. Su (许传芳), Richard M. K. Saunders)