Greek drimys—acrid, referring to the sharp taste of the bark.
Evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves entire, waxy and dotted below, aromatic. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, sometimes the sexes on different plants, solitary or in clusters, terminal. Sepals 2-3 enclosing bud and soon shed. Petals few to many. Stamens many with cylindrical filaments. Carpels 1-many, free. Fruit a cluster of berry-like fruitlets; cf. Tasmannia.
Female flowers with several carpels forming a berry fruit; leaves waxy white below.
About 25 species from the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea and nearby islands, Mexico and S America.
Vink (1970).
Source: (1997). Winteraceae. In: . 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.