Dioecious trees, to 12 m high, bark pale brown, thinly scaly; branchlets puberulous, rather a slender. Leaves simple, altemate, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-ovate, apex acute or acuminate, base acute or cuneate,margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous above, minutely puberulous beneath; petiole 5-10 mm long, slender, pubescent; lateral nerves 6-9 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual, white, in 4-flowered axillary, subsessile, crowded, umbels; bracts 4, silky; perianth tube funnel shaped, finely silky, lobes 6. Stamens 12, in 4 rows; those of rows 1 and 2 usually eglandular, glands of those opposite to tepals very large; staminodes in female flowers as the stamens of males, but those of inner rows subulate and 2-glandular. Ovary half inferior, ovoid; style slender; stigma small, erect. Fruit a berry, ovoid, greenish-white, seated on a thickened perianth.