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Shrubs or small trees, usually dioecious, rarely polygamous; trunk and branches usually spiny. Leaves alternate, stipulate, usually petiolate; leaf blade pinnate-veined, margin serrate, rarely entire, teeth glandular. Flowers hypogynous, small, in axillary fascicles, short racemes, or panicles, rudiments of opposite sex usually absent; bracts small, persistent or caducous; pedicels articulate at base. Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate, free or connate at base only. Petals absent. Disk extrastaminal, or in female flowers extragynoecial, comprised of several small closely set or connate glands (usually in staminate flowers) or annular (often in pistillate flowers). Staminate flowers: stamens ca. 10 to many, exserted; filaments free, filiform; anthers small, basifixed, sometimes apiculate by extension of connective. Pistillate flowers: ovary superior, 1-loculed; placentas 2(-6), each with 2 to many ovules; styles 2 or 3(or 4), often very short, joined in lower part only or completely joined to form a single style column, or styles absent; stigmas semilunate to U-shaped. Berry small, ca. 1 cm or less, pericarp thinly leathery, blackish when dried; disk and calyx often persistent at base; styles and/or stigmas persistent at apex. Seeds few.
Dioecious trees or shrubs, often with axillary, simple spines on branches and branchlets, sometimes with (simple or compound) thorns on trunk. Leaves spirally arranged, ± coriaceous, mostly subglandular-serrate or-crenate, more rarely entire, penninerved, mostly with a short petiole. Stipules 0. Flowers small, in short, axillary, few-flowered, mostly solitary racemes. Bracts small, subpersistent. Pedicels articulated immediately above their insertion or a little higher up. Perianth segments (sepals) 4-6(rarely up to 8), slightly connate at the base, imbricate. Petals 0. Disk fleshy, mostly ± regularly 4-8-lobed, more rarely entire, extrastaminal. ♂ Flowers: stamens very numerous, mostly exserted; filaments filiform; anthers subglobose, basifixed, ± gibbous. Rudiment of ovary 0. ♀ Flowers: ovary sessile, with 2(-3, rarely up to 6), few-ovuled placentas; stigmas 2 (or 3), somewhat bilobed, sessile or on a (sometimes very) short, cylindrical style. Berry rather dry; pericarp mostly thinly leathery. Seeds mostly few, ± obovoid by mutual pressure, with a thin aril.
Trees or shrubs, dioecious or (not in Australia) polygamous. Leaves alternate or spirally arranged, with lamina serrate, crenate or entire; stipules minute or absent. Flowers in axillary, few-flowered racemes or fascicles; bracts small, subpersistent; pedicels articulated. Sepals 4–8 imbricate, connate at base. Petals absent. Disc fleshy, few to many-lobed, rarely entire, extra-staminal. Male flowers: stamens numerous; filaments filiform; anthers extrorse, basifixed; rudiment of ovary present or absent. Female flowers: ovary sessile superior; placentas 2–6; ovules 2 to several per placenta; styles 2 or 3, connate or style single, sometimes very short; stigmas 2 or 3, bilobed. Fruit a berry with a thin, leathery pericarp. Seeds 1–8, sometimes with a thin aril; testa smooth, crustaceous.
Shrubs [trees], often ± heterophyllous, not clonal; branching sympodial. Stems usually spinose, sometimes unarmed, spines simple and/or compound. Leaves usually persistent, sometimes ± deciduous (sometimes congested at apices of relatively short lateral branches); stipules absent; petiole not glandular. Inflorescences axillary, fasciculate [racemose], 1 or 2 per axil. Pedicels articulate. Flowers: sepals 4-6 (± persistent, connate proximally, imbricate); disc lobed (lobes extrastaminal, ± confluent [distinct]); stamens [8-]16-24[-50+] (usually exserted); filaments distinct; ovary 2-or 3-carpellate; style indistinct [relatively short]; stigmas 2 or 3, expanded, obcompressed, ± lobed. Fruits baccate. Seeds: aril absent. x = 10.
A tree.
