Shrubs or trees , evergreen. Bark dark brown, thin. Leaves alternate, with pungent odor when crushed. Leaf blade pinnately veined, leathery; surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent, gland-dotted; domatia absent. Inflorescences appearing when mature leaves are present, axillary, pseudoumbels, stalked, young pseudoumbel enclosed by spirally arranged bracts. Flowers bisexual; tepals deciduous, yellowish, equal, glabrous; stamens 9, anthers 4-locular, 4-valved, outer anthers introrse, inner anthers extrorse; staminodes 3, small, stipitate; ovary superior, ovoid. Drupe greenish, dark purple when dried, spheric-ovoid, seated in flat, small, single-rimmed cupule.