Dioecious, rarely monoecious, shrubs or soft-wooded trees. Leaves alternate, simple, coriaceous, serrulate to dentate, triveined, closely villous beneath, petiolate; stipules connate, intrapetiolar, bifid. Inflorescence unisexual; flowers borne in globular heads sessile at nodes or alternating on interrupted spikes. Male flowers: tepals 4 or 5; pistillode present, densely villous. Female flowers: perianth tubular, the orifice contracted, 2–4-dentate; ovary enclosed by perianth; stigma filiform, unilaterally stigmatic. Achene closely enclosed by fleshy perianth.