Tree dioecious 6-18 m high with a dense crown and aromatic wood.  Leaves simple, alternate, oblong-elliptic, acutely acuminate, pinnately veined, dark green shiny above, paler beneath, 5-15 cm x 2-7 cm; male inflorescences usually 1-10 flowered cyme, fragrant, pale yellow, female inflorescences a 1-3 flowered cyme, but usually 1-flowered, pale yellow; fruit a fleshy, smooth, yellow, sub-globose, drupe, 3-6 cm long with a circumferential, longitudinal ridge; seed brown, ovoid 1.5-4.5cm long covered with a lacinate, red aril.

Large perennial herb 2-9 m high with basal corm. Pseudostem composed of leaf sheaths forming the ‘trunk’ of the plant. Leaves blades oblong, entire 1.5-4 m x 0.7-1 m, petiole 30-90 cm long, rounded beneath, channeled above; inflorescences terminal, growing from the pseudostem, erect or drooping; flowers in flat clusters in the axils of spirally arranged broad, dark purple-coloured bracts, functionally unisexual, the lower female the upper male; mature fruit fleshy, cylindrical, 6-35 cm x 2.5-5 cm with greenish, yellow or reddish skin.

Tree, 5-10 m high, trunk brittle, root with taste and odour of horseraddish. Leaves deciduous, alternate, 30-60cm long, compound 3-pinnate, leaflets opposite, numerous, short-petiolate, 1-2.5 cm x 0.6-1.5 cm, variable in shape; inflorescence a panicle, axillary, flowers fragrant numerous, petals white,14-18 mm x 6-8 mm; fruit a linear capsule, triquetrous, 20- 45 cm long, 2 cm thick, usually pendulous tan; seeds globular 10 mm in diameter usually winged.

Tree or shrub, up to 6 m high.  Leaves opposite, elliptic, petioles 1-2 cm long, winged, blades glabrous, broadly ovate or elliptic, 17-45 cm x 8-24 cm, base obtuse, apex acuminate; stipules rounded 1-2 cm long and broad; flowers sessile on globose heads, corolla tube white, 6-10 mm long; fruits fused into a ‘pineapple-like’ globose structure 5-7 cm long and 3-7 cm in diameter, becoming white then semi-tranlucent with fetid smell when ripe.

Climbing dioecious herb 6 m or more, usually densely branchedwith tendrils.  Leaves alternate, simple 4-12 cm long, deeply5-7 lobed,sinuate with mucronate tips; inflorescence a raceme; female and male flowers yellow, peduncle shorter on female flower, bracts on male peduncle reniform to rounded-cordate; fruit cylindrical, narrowed at both ends, 8-15 cm long, prominent tubercles on the ribs, orange when ripe containing pendulous seeds covered in a red pulp; seed oblong 12-16 mm x 5-9 mm and 3-4 mm thick.