 The species are evergreen shrubs and small trees reaching 1.0–10 m (rarely to 20 m) tall.The leaves are spirally arranged on the shoots, but twisted at the base to lie in two flat ranks (except on erect leading shoots); they are linear, 4–12 cm long and 3–4 mm broad, soft in texture, with a blunt tip; this helps distinguish them from the related genus "Torreya", which has spine-tipped leaves.The species can be either monoecious or dioecious; when monoecious, the male and female cones are often on different branches.