Female flowers pedicellate, the pedicels extending in fruit; sepals 4–6, free or united (not Africa) at the base, pinnatifid, bipinnatipartite or entire (not Africa), the segments gland-tipped or not, persistent, accrescent or not (not Africa); petals absent; disk annular, subentire, ovary 3-locular, with 1 ovule per loculus; styles 3, free or connate, multifid.
Male flowers pedicellate; calyx closed in bud, globose, later splitting into 3–4 valvate lobes; petals absent; disk absent; stamens (4)6–8(10), biseriate (Africa) or uniseriate, filaments free, inflexed or not in bud, anthers oblong, dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode entire or 2–3-fid.
Inflorescences terminal, racemose, usually bisexual, with the male flowers aggregated into a dense globose terminal head, and with (0)1–7 female flowers at the base; bracts small or minute.
Seeds ovoid-subglobose, smooth, ecarunculate; testa crustaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat.
Leaves alternate, petiolate or subsessile, stipulate, simple, entire or toothed, palminerved.
Fruits 3-lobed, dehiscing septicidally into 3 bivalved cocci; endocarp thinly woody.
Monoecious shrubs or subshrubs.
Indumentum stellate.