Dioecious. Shrubs or small trees; branches smooth. Leaves alternate,
entire, penninerved, petiolate. Flowes in axillary or in leaf-opposed cymes,
unisexual, on short pedicels, usually many in male and fewer in female
inflorescence, bracteate; bracts small. Calyx minute, cup-shaped, 4 - 5-lobed
to entire. Petals 4 - 5, connate below and cupular or tubular or entirely free,
lobes inflexed at apex, valvate. Male flowers: Stamens 4 - 5; filaments free,
exserted, thick and flattened, usually with a tuft of club-shaped hairs at the
apex; anthers ovoid. Disc absent. Rudimentary ovary present. Female flowers: Petals sometimes absent. Staminodes present or absent. Ovary oblong; stigma
discoid, large, persistent in fruit. Drupes ellipsoid to ovoid, oblique at base,
usually grooved.
South East Asia; ca 33 species, 3 in India.
