Small to medium tree with greyish-green bark; leaves alternate or falsely opposite, broadly-elliptic, glabrous, obtuse at both ends, never acuminate base obtuse; petiole usually very short; inflorescence more or less rusty, peduncles one or more from the same axil; flower heads 2-5, cm on long racemes; bracteoles inconspicuous; calyx tube compressed, 2-winged, pubescent, teeth acute; petals absent; stamens 10, in 2 series, filaments slender; ovary inferior, 1-celled, glabrous below; ovules 2, pendulous from the top of ovary; styles 1-3, short, filiform; stigma simple; fruit dry drupe, nearly orbicular, many in a yellowish-brown globular head, shining, beak as long as the nucleus, 1-seeded, beak much longer, rusty pubescent when young.