Microelus Wight & Arnott; Stylodiscus Bennett.

Large trees, dioecious, rarely monoecious, with red or reddish latex; indumentum of simple hairs, often absent. Leaves alternate, usually crowded at stem apex, palmately 3(-5)-foliolate; stipules small, falcate, caducous; petiole long; leaflet margins crenulate-serrate. Inflorescences axillary or lateral, produced with young leaves, paniculate or racemose, pendent, flowers 1 per bract. Male flowers: pedicel articulated at base; sepals 5, free, valvate, initially curved around stamens, later reflexed; petals and disk absent; stamens 5, free, inserted at bases of sepals; filaments short; anthers larger, thecae 2, parallel, introrse, dehiscence longitudinal; pistillode short and broad, peltate. Female flowers: pedicel articulated at middle; sepals imbricate, flat, free; petals and disk absent; staminodes sometimes present, soon lost; ovary 3(or 4)-locular; ovules 2 per locule; styles 3 or 4, long, stout, entire, erect or recurved. Fruits small, baccate, globose, indehiscent, exocarp fleshy, endocarp papery to thinly woody, 3- or 4-locular. Seeds 3-6, oblong-obovoid, rather crescent-moon-shaped, smooth, not carunculate; testa crustaceous; endosperm fleshy; embryo erect; cotyledon broad and flattened. x = 7.

Two species: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, Pacific islands (Polynesia); two species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Li Bingtao (李秉滔 Li Ping-tao); Michael G. Gilbert)