Shrubs or subshrubs, dioecious or monoecious; herbage ± scurfy. Stems erect or ascending, branching from base, not jointed, not armed; axillary buds prominent, subglobose. Leaves alternate, subsessile or bases tapering to short petioles; blade linear or narrowly oblanceolate-spatulate to elliptic, ovate, obovate, or orbiculate, margins entire or rarely hastately lobed, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescences commonly with some moniliform hairs; staminate flowers borne in spikes in apical axils or ± paniculate, glomerules 2-5-flowered; pistillate flowers 1-several per bract, often some vestigial. Staminate flowers not separately bracteolate, but with linear bracts subtending each spike; perianth 4(-5)-lobed; stamens 4-5. Pistillate flowers each enclosed by 2 bracteoles connate nearly to apex; perianth absent; stigmas 2. Fruiting structures: bracteoles either veinless and laterally flattened and/or 1-3-veined adaxially, or rarely unequally 3-winged, enclosed achene vertical, or bracteoles transversely flattened, oval to hexagonal and not or unequally 1-4(-5)-ridged , with 2 slightly enlarged wings, thus accommodating horizontal achene, margins not spongy-thickened; bracteoles lacking spongy cellular matrix, often subtended by single, filiform bractlet; pericarp adherent. Seeds reniform; seed coat greenish, tuberculate; embryo annular; perisperm copious . x = 9.
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