Shrubs or small tress, evergreen; branches with 1 prophyll, stellately pubescent or lepidote when young; buds naked. Leaves distichous (rarely spiral), shortly petiolate; stipules caducous, leaving small scars; leaf blade leathery, margin entire or shallowly toothed towards leaf apex, venation pinnate; lateral veins usually prominent abaxially. Plants andromonoecious. Inflorescence a condensed panicle or botryoid, flowers distichously (or rarely spirally ) arranged, axillary, ± sessile; each flower usually subtended by two (simple or 3-lobed) subopposite sepal-like bracteoles, sometimes lacking in male flowers. Flowers male or bisexual. Floral cup absent. Sepals and petals absent. Male flowers: stamens 1–8, filaments short, unequal, anthers ellipsoid, thecae 2-sporangiate, each dehiscing by a longitudinal slit, connective produced. Bisexual flowers: stamens 5–8, ovary superior, ovules 1 per locule; stigmas decurrent. Fruits distichously (or rarely spirally) arranged, sometimes pedicellate. Capsules ovoid-globose, woody, stellately tomentose, dehiscing above middle by two 2-lobed valves, apex acute. Seeds 1 per locule, narrowly ovoid. 2n = 24.

About 18 species: China, NE India (Assam), Indonesia (Java, Sumatra), Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Korea, Malaysia; 12 species (11 endemic) in China.