Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, with stipules. Indumentum simple. Leaves alternate (sometimes opposite in lowermost), petiolate, simple, crenate or serrate, membranous, penninerved, often purplish-tinged. Inflorescences axillary, spicate or racemose with the flowers in bracteate clusters along the axis, usually the terminal flower female. Male flowers pedicellate; calyx closed in bud, later splitting into 3(-4) valvate lobes; petals absent; disk of 3–30 free interstaminal glands or absent. Female flowers pedicellate; sepals 3–5, imbricate; petals absent; disk glands 2–6; ovary 2–4-locular, with 1 ovule per loculus. Fruit 2–4-coccous, or 1-coccous by abortion, dehiscent; pericarp thin; endocarp crustaceous. Seeds subglobose, thinly arillate; testa crustaceous; endosperm fleshy.
Worldwide: 12 species in the Old World tropics Caprivi: 1 taxon. |
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