Evergreen, dioecious shrubs or small trees, sometimes climbing or epiphytic. Leaves simple, alternate or subopposite, petiolate; lamina margin entire, dentate or spinose, one side often slightly longer than the other at base; stipules absent. Inflorescences racemose to paniculate, flowers unisexual, very small. Male flowers actinomorphic, 5-merous; petals free; stamens 5, attached to a glandular disc located at the centre of the flower, anthers 2-locular, dehiscence by longitudinal slits. Female flowers actinomorphic, 5-merous; sepals sometimes absent or soon caducous; petals sometimes absent, caducous; carpels 3, bilocular; ovary inferior, styles 3. Fruit drupaceous, 1-seeded.
Several members of the genus are cultivated in Australia as ornamentals, including Griselinia littoralis (Kapuka) and G. lucida (Puka) with variegated cultivars (Ellison 1999: 279; Rodd 1996: 235–236).
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