Shrubs, usually dioecious, sparingly hairy to glabrescent, hairs simple. Leaves often clustered on axillary short shoots; blade glabrescent. Inflorescences: staminate paniclelike or racemelike thyrses, or fascicles on short shoots; pistillate fascicles on short shoots or flowers solitary. Pedicels present or absent. Staminate flowers: sepals 4–10, sometimes weakly differentiated in 2 whorls; nectary intrastaminal, lobed; stamens 4–10. Pistillate flowers: sepals 5–13, sometimes differentiated in 2 whorls; nectary lobed. Fruits capsules. Seeds oblong, ovoid, or pyriform, with one flattened radial surface if 2 seeds develop per locule, otherwise both radial surfaces rounded, seed coat dry, smooth or wrinkled near hilum. x = 12.
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