Dioecious shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers in axillary spikes, rarely in panicles or fascicles. Calyx cupular, shortly 4-or 5-lobed. Corolla 4-or 5-lobed to c. middle; lobes valvate. Male flowers: stamens 4 or 5, adnate to corolla-tube at base, glabrous; anthers introrse, dorsifixed. Female flowers: staminodes absent or rudimentary, without anthers; ovary 1-locular with 2 ovules, strigose; style obsolete; stigma flattened. Drupe compressed laterally and almond-like when dried; exocarp red to orange; endocarp thinly woody, coarsely reticulate. Seed 1, with broad flat cotyledons.
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