Shrubs, trailing or scrambling, dioecious or monoecious, usually glabrous; branches
terete, striate or angled, sometimes narrowly winged. Leaves alternate on long shoots,
crowded on short shoots, entire or denticulate, thin, pellucid-punctate. Flowers solitary
in leaf-axils or fascicled on old wood; pedicels slender, terete, often 1 - 4-bracteolate or
sometimes ebracteolate. Perianth segments 5 - 20, usually 2- or 3-seriate, yellow or
reddish, often pellucid-glandular. Male flowers: Torus either broadly columnar, with
broad naked apex, surrounded by erecto-patent stamens or globose, provided with
cavities in which the majority of anthers are embedded; anthers free, suberect; outer
ones on short filaments; inner ones sessile. Female flowers: Torus shortly stalked,
globose; carpels many, sessile, each tapering above into an elongate flattened appendage. Fruitlets on much elongated torus, ellipsoid to obovoid, rounded. Seeds 1 - 2,
ellipsoid, subglobose or reniform.
N. America, tropical and warm temperate Asia; ca 25 species, 5 in India.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1a. Stamens in shallow or circular pits or cavities on subglobose or obovoid torus; anthers at length.Free
or reflexed or remaining immersed in cavities
2
b. Stamens on elongate or ovoid torus, not in cavities or pits; anthers sessile or stalked
3
2a. Perianth segments 6 -
10 in male flowers and 8 -
16 in female flowers
b. Perianth segments white, pale pink, red or crimson, 10 -
18 mm across; carpels 70 -
120
4
4a. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, subglaucous beneath; perianth segments usually white or sometimes pale
pink; old ones turning to brownish; carpels appendaged at apex
