Habit: trees, shrubs, woody vines, often unbranched
Leaves: alternate, often in dense terminal rosettes, simple to palmately or pinnately lobed or pinnate (rarely bipinnate), long petiolate, espitulate, sheathing, often very large.
Plants: synoecious, monoecious or dioecious
Inflorescence: spikes, racemes, heads, cymes or panicles, subtended by 1 or more spathes
Flowers: perfect or imperfect, regular
Sepals: 3 (2 or 4), distinct or connate
Petals: 3 (2 or 4), distinct or connate, often sepaloid in color and texture
Stamens: 6 (3-5) (many), distinct, free or adnate to hypanthium
Ovary: 3 (1-7) carpels, free or connate, superior with 1-3 locules and 1 basal or axile ovule per locule
Fruit: drupe, berry, syncarp