Screw Pine Family

Dioecious trees or shrubs, often with proproots near the base. Branches with leaf scars. Leaves crowded at the ends of the branches, in 3 ranks, appearing as a spiral (hence the name, screw pines), glabrous, entire but armed on the margins, sometimes with prickles on the adaxial side of the midrib. Inflorescences terminal, many-flowered. Flowers unisexual, rudimentary. Male flowers: stamens many; anthers 2-thecous. Female flowers of several 1-locular carpels. Fruiting inflorescence of many drupes crowded into a large subspherical to ellipsoid structure.