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Shrubs or small trees, ♂, ♀ or hermaphrodite; twigs slender, variably pubescent. Leaves glabrous, entire, crenate or serrate. Inflorescence axillary few-flowered clusters; peduncles very short, bract-covered; flowers pedicellate, 4-5-merous, gland-dotted. Sepals free or united at base, margins usually ciliate. Corolla-lobes erect, imbricate, margins often finely erose and speckled. Stamens shorter to longer than the petals; filaments united at base into a collar which is adnate to the corolla-tube; anthers dorsifixed, free, usually apiculate, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, globose or ovoid; ovules few to many in 1 row on the placenta; style short or sometimes exceeding petals; stigma large, discoid-capitate, lobed to fimbriate. Fruit a berry, small, fleshy, globose, 1-seeded with persistent calyx. Seed globose, covered by remains of placenta; embryo transverse, often curved.
Fls 4-5-merous, perfect to unisexual, us. in cymose fascicles, sts solitary. Sepals free or connate towards base; petals free or partly connate. Staminal filaments obsolete to evident, free or ± adnate to petals; anthers dorsifixed. Style obsolete to evident; stigma capitate. Ovary superior; fr. a 1-seeded globose drupe. In the N.Z. spp. the fls and frs often do not develop till after lf-fall and thus appear naked on the branches. The frs often do not mature till the year after flowering. The calyx and style are long-persistent. Widespread genus of many spp., the N.Z. spp. endemic.
Shrub up to ± 4 m. tall, with creeping underground stems emitting offset plants; bark dark brown; branchlets clad in stiff white hairs when young. Lvs on short petioles, sts clustered on short lateral branchlets. Lamina entire, coriac., 10-20 × 5-10 mm., obovate, cuneately narrowed to base, obtuse, sts retuse to emarginate; margin flat, ciliolate when young. Infl. of 1 fl. or 2-3 together; fls subsessile, pedicels elongating in fr. Calyx-lobes 4, deltoid, ciliolate; petals 4, free, obovate-oblong, ciliolate; stigma sessile, capitate. Fr. ± 6 mm. diam., globose, purplish.
Stamens included in or exceeding corolla; filaments present, inserted at base of corolla, often on a glandular ring; anthers dehiscing by slits.
Ovary glabrous, ovoid or ellipsoid; style well developed; stigma large, discoid, often with incised margins; placenta with few ovules in 1 row.
Petals almost free or connate to the middle, marked with resin–dots, usually ciliate at the margin.
Sepals free or shortly connate at the base, marked with resin–dots, the margins usually ciliate.
Dioecious trees and shrubs with leaves very often serrate or crenate.
Fruit a globose 1–seeded fleshy drupe with crustaceous endocarp.
Flowers 4–5–merous, borne in few–flowered axillary fascicles.
Seed subglobose, with ruminate endosperm.
