Evergreen shrubs and small trees. Leaves alternate, simple, distichous; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, epigynous, petals and sepals fused to form a cap that is soon shed. Stamens numerous on the edge of a swollen base, the innermost ones sterile and petal-like. Carpels numerous, buried in the swollen base. Ovary inferior. Fruit a berry becoming soft and fleshy when ripe.

An ancient family previously placed in the Annonaceae to which it is closely related.

Pollination is by beetles, a primitive character generally associated with fragrance and lack of flower colour.

Seed, or sometimes cuttings (slow to strike).

Flowers with a rounded to pointed cap; stamens petal-like; carpels within a swollen base.

1 genus of 2 species from the rainforests of E Australia and New Guinea.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Eupomatiaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Updated by: Rob Cross, December 2017