Shrubs or trees, deciduous, dioecious, spiny. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, subsessile to petiolate, blade margin entire. Flowers unisexual, clustered at base of lateral shoots. Male flowers in small catkins that appear before the leaves; calyx segments 2, membranous, free; stamens 4; disk small. Female flowers in small racemes, appearing with the leaves; calyx tubular, 2-lobed; style stigmatic on one side. Drupe globose, ellipsoid, or cylindric, sometimes longitudinally ribbed. Seed enclosed in parchmentlike endocarp, sometimes difficult to separate from seed. 2n = 24.
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