Plants in the genus Cryptocarya are trees, occasionally shrubs, the leaves usually arranged alternately along the branches.

The ovary is sessile, usually with an inconspicuous stigma and the fruit is an elliptic to spherical, fleshy drupe, containing a single seed.

[2][3][4] The genus Cryptocarya was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

[6] In a recent generic classification of Lauraceae based on DNA sequence, Cryptocarya was found to be part of a strongly supported clade that also includes Beilschmiedia, Potameia, and Endiandra.

[8] Essential oil is commercially harvested from Cryptocarya agathophylla (formerly Ravensara aromatica), a tree native to the lowland rainforests of eastern Madagascar.