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Trees or shrubs, dioecious or monoecious, unarmed or armed with thorns, uncinate hairs often present. Leaves distichous or sometimes spirally arranged; lamina pinnately veined, with cystoliths above and beneath, only beneath, or absent; stipules free or sometimes fused, lateral or sometimes almost fully amplexicaul. Inflorescences unisexual or sometimes bisexual, racemose, spicate or subcapitate, bracteate; staminate inflorescences multi-to pluriflorous; pistillate inflorescences multi-to uniflorous. Staminate flowers with 3, 4, or 5 tepals, imbricate or valvate in the bud; stamens 3, 4, or 5, inflexed in the bud. Pistillate flowers 4-merous; tepals (almost) free, more or less unequal in size; ovary free, stigmas 2, equal. Fruiting perianth enlarged or not, somewhat fleshy or not, mostly greenish; fruit free, drupaceous, dehiscent and whitish or indehiscent and yellow, orange, red, or blackish, endocarp (thinly) crustaceous; seed without endosperm, cotyledons folded or not, equal or unequal, radicle short or long.
Shrubs or treelets, dioecious or sometimes monoecious. Leaves distichous, pinnately veined; stipules semi-amplexicaul, free. Inflorescences in the leaf-axils, bracteate. Staminate inflorescences spicate; tepals 4, basally connate; stamens 4, inflexed in bud; pistillode present. Pistillate inflorescences uniflorous; tepals 4, free; ovary free; stigmas 2, filiform, subequal in length. Fruiting perianth enlarged, hardly fleshy, green. Fruit a free dehiscent drupe, the white fleshy exocarp pushing out the black endocarp-body (pyrene). Seed large, without endosperm; cotyledons thick, equal.
Monoecious trees or shrubs. Leaves simple, distichous, petiolate, without glands; stipules small. Inflorescence unisexual, rarely bisexual, pedunculate. Male inflorescence a many-flowered spike, with a sterile often spiral groove on rachis; female a few-flowered spike shorter than the male. Male flowers: tepals 4, free, pubescent; stamens 4, with inflexed filaments; pistillode present. Female flowers: tepals 4, free or slightly connate; ovary superior; stigma bifid. Fruit usually an achene, ovoid to globular, sometimes fleshy; embryo diverse.
Fruiting perianth enlarged, hardly fleshy, green; fruit a free dehiscent drupe, the white fleshy exocarp pushing out the black endocarp body (pyrene); seed large, without endosperm, cotyledons thick, equal.
Staminate inflorescences spicate; tepals 4, basally connate; stamens 4, inflexed in bud, pistillode present.
Pistillate inflorescences uniflorous; tepals 4, free; ovary free; stigmas 2, filiform, subequal in length.
Leaves distichous, pinnately veined; stipules semi-amplexicaul, free.
Shrubs or small trees, dioecious or sometimes monoecious.
Inflorescences in the leaf axils, bracteate.
