Soft wooded, dioecious or monoecious trees with succulent stem and milky sap, trunks mostly unbranched. Leaves often very large in terminal crown, palmately lobed, with long, hollow petioles, exstipulate. Flowers unisexual then plants mostly dioecious, rarely bisexual; female flowers in short cymes or solitary on short peduncles; male flowers in long drooping panicles; calyx small, 5-lobed. Petals 5, free or united. Male flowers with 10 stamens in 2 series, epipetalous, sessile; pistil rudimentary. Female flowers pentacarpellary, syncarpous, placention parietal, stigma sessile 5-lobed. Fruit succulent berry. Seeds numerous, enclosed in sweet pulp.