Large, deciduous, monoecious trees; bark pale and usually exfoliating in thin plates. Lvs alternate, simple, palmately veined and palmately lobed; petiole dilated at base and enclosing bud; stipules often large, caducous. Infl. of pendulous strings with 1-12 dense globose heads of fls; heads either ♂ or ♀, sessile or pedunculate. ♂ heads: bracts 0; calyx 0; corolla 0; stamens 3-4 or numerous depending on interpretation, with subsessile anthers, each with a minute scale. ♀ heads: bracts linear; calyx 0; corolla 0; carpels 6-9 or numerous depending on interpretation, free, subsessile; styles persistent; stigma on inner side of style; ovary 1-celled, with 1-(2) pendulous ovules. Fr. a globose head composed of numerous 1-seeded, indehiscent, angled, obconic achenes or nutlets, surrounded by long hairs. Seed with thin endosperm; cotyledons often unequal.