Herbs to shrubs, monoecious; indumentum of simple hairs, sometimes absent. Leaves alternate, petiolate; stipules small, usually membranous, glabrous or ciliate, persistent; leaf blade simple, membranous to leathery, margin entire, venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, 1-flowered or fascicled, male flowers sometimes on short densely bracteate inflorescences. Male flowers: pedicels usually filiform; sepals 5(or 6), free or connate at base, imbricate; petals 5(or 6), usually shorter than sepals, mostly membranous; disk with 5(or 6) contiguous regular segments bilobed for 1/3-4/5 of their length; stamens 5(or 6), opposite sepals; filaments free; anthers introrse or extrorse, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode composed of 3 free segments or 3-lobed. Female flowers: pedicels apically dilated; sepals larger than male; petals membranous, minute and often hidden under disk lobes; disk annular, regularly divided into 5(or 6) emarginate segments; ovary 3-6-locular; ovules 2 per locule; styles 3-6, apex bifid to base or nearly so, recurved; stigmas apically dilated to capitate. Fruit a capsule, dehiscent into 3(-6) 2-valved cocci when mature, smooth, sometimes with faint reticulate venation. Seeds without caruncle, rounded triquetrous to almost reniform, smooth, rugose or pitted, dull; endosperm fleshy; embryo curved; cotyledons flattened and broad.
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