Semievergreen, glabrous, littoral or mangrove trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate,
paripinnate; leaflets opposite, generally 2 - 6, entire, faintly nerved. Panicles lax, axillary.
Flowers unisexual but with well-developed rudiments of opposite sex. Calyx short, 4-fid
to about middle, valvate. Petals 4, free, reflexed , much longer than calyx, contorted in
bud. Staminal tube urceolate or globose, 8-dentate at apex; anthers 8, included, alternating with appendages. Antherodes in female flowers similar but non-dehiscing and
without pollen. Disk cup-shaped, fleshy, red, adnate to base of ovary but free from
staminal tube. Ovary 4-sulcate, 4-locular; locules 3 -
6-ovuled; style short; stigma discoid,
almost blocking mouth of staminal tube, crenulate at margin; upper surface with 4
radiating grooves. Pistillode in male flowers similar but more slender and with rudimentary ovules. Fruit a septifragal capsule, irregularly globose, large, pendulous, leathery,
8 - 20-seeded, dehiscing tardily by 4-valves from base and apex; columella thin, rudimentary; seeds large, angular, thick, attached by apex to columella, exarillate, nonendospermous; testa corky; hilum prominent.
Mangrove swamps or coastal habitats of the Old World with about 5 species; 3 in
India.
