Shrubs or trees, dioecious, rarely monoecious. Branchlets puberulent. Leaves alternate; stipules small or minute, deciduous; leaf blade mostly ± dentate; venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, unbranched; bracts small. Male flowers 1 to many per bract; sepals (2 or)3 or 4, valvate, closed in bud; petals absent; stamens (10-)20-30(-200); filaments free; anthers basifixed, 2-locular, theca almost free, erect; juxtastaminal glands many, short, erect, apex pilose; pistillode absent. Female flowers mostly 1 per bract; sepals 2-4; petals absent; disk annular or dissected; ovary 2- or 3(or 4)-locular; ovule 1 per locule; styles short, stigmatic surface papillose or plumose, recurved. Fruit a capsule, 2- or 3(or 4)-lobed. Seeds globose; testa fleshy, inner layer hard, foveolate-reticulate.

About 75 species: Old World tropics; six species in China.

(Authors: Qiu Huaxing (丘华兴 Chiu Hua-hsing, Kiu Hua-shing, Kiu Hua-xing); Michael G. Gilbert)