Shrubs or rarely small trees, monoecious or dioecious, often resinous. Latex absent. Stems glabrous or stellate-pubescent. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, exstipulate, sessile or shortly petiolate; marginal glands present (rarely absent) on lamina proximally. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, solitary, paired or in umbelliform clusters terminal on rudimentary, short or variously elongated branches (peduncles) in distal leaf axils, bracteate; perianth mostly 1-whorled lacking a corolla or rarely 2-whorled in female flowers with rudimentary corolla; calyx shortly fused proximally, deeply 4-or 5 (rarely 6)-lobed, imbricate (quincuncial); disc absent. Male flowers: stamens numerous, spreading ± perpendicularly from a central column; anthers of two separate parallel but contiguous locules terminal on the apex of each filament, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Female flowers: calyx persistent; lobes sometimes enlarging in fruit; ovary 3 (rarely 2, 4 or 5)-celled with one pendant ovule in each locule; styles 3 (rarely 4), 2–several-lobed. Fruit capsular, usually 1-seeded by abortion. Seeds ovoid, ellipsoid or obloid, smooth, carunculate; caruncle waxy-fleshy; endosperm copious; cotyledons ± equal in width to the radicle.
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