They are evergreen monoecious,
hermaphrodite,
trees or rarely
bushes. Leaves lax at the apex of the branches, without papillae on the abaxial epidermis of the leaves. The leaves are alternate or opposite but rarely opposite, entire, subcoriaceous in some species of Central America as Nicaragua, glabrous on the upper, glabrous or pubescent on the underside, pinnatinervium. Flowers in panicles terminating in a top. The
inflorescences in axillary,
paniculata so capitated, the
tepals generally the same, with three stamens, the anthers exserted or included at anthesis, filaments free or fused. Flowers monoclinic with hypanthium urceolate, not depressed below the tepals, tepals 6, generally erect, equal inner surface without papillae. Androecium with three stamens fertile, filaments generally the same width as anthers or more slender, anthers bilocelares: 1st and 2nd series with stamens absent or transformed into staminodes; third grade with 3 stamens, a pair of glands at the base of fiaments present, reduced, never fused, or absent, anthers introrse or extrorse-apical; estaminodial fourth grade absent or rarely present with 3 staminodes. The
fruit is a
berry with deciduous tepals. ==Species==