Evergreen tree; young parts pubescent, branchlets covered with rusty stellate tomentum; leaves alternate, ovate-lanceolate, acute-acuminate at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, entire or sparsely serrulate, glaucous and gland dotted beneath; flowers minute, dioecious or monoecious, apetalous, whitish yellow in axillary or terminal panicled spikes; male flowers clustered in erect, terminal spikes, forming elongated paniculate racemes, tepals 3-5, sepaloid, ovoid; stamens numerous, about 20-30, crowded on a central, flat or convex receptacle; filaments free, anthers small, globose or oblong, lobes parallel, dorsifixed; disk usually absent; female flowers solitary in short spikes, tepals 3-4, spathaceous, velvety, thick, ovary 2-4 celled, reddish green, glandular, ovule solitary, styles free or connate below, spreading, entire; capsule smooth or tubercled, globose, 3-lobed, covered with bright red powder consisting of minute stellate hairs; seeds globose, smooth, black.