Trees deciduous, dioecious. Ramification system with long vegetative shoots and short vegetative or reproductive shoots. Stipules early deciduous. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate on long shoots, single on short shoots, petiolate; leaf blades papery, simple, palmately veined. Inflorescences appearing before leaves, fasciculate. Flowers produced on short shoots, each flower subtended by a bract or bract suppressed; perianth lacking. Staminate inflorescences subsessile; flowers ca. 4 or more, difficult to separate from each other, sessile; stamens (1--)7--13 per flower. Pistillate inflorescences short pedunculate; flowers 2--6(--8), sessile; carpel 1; ovules 15--30, in 2 rows. Fruit a follicle. Seeds flattened, winged; endosperm oily; embryo large.

Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Cercidiphyllaceae. Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 27: 22--24.

One genus and two species: China, Japan; one species in China.

(Authors: Fu Dezhi; Peter K. Endress)