Shrubs or trees, monoecious or dioecious. Leaves imparipinnate or (pari)pinnate, petiolate; leaflets 1-5-jugate, leathery, margin entire or sparsely dentate. Thyrses axillary or terminal; bracts and bracteoles small. Flowers actinomorphic, unisexual. Calyx cupular, 5-lobed; sepals triangular, valvate. Petals 5, small, slightly longer than calyx, slender, with 1 large scale adaxially; scale connate with margin of petals funnelform. Disk annular, 5-lobed. Stamens (male flowers) 6-10, exserted; filaments glabrous or hairy. Ovary (female flowers) obovoid, tuberculous; ovules 1 per locule; style terminal; stigma 3-lobed, lobes excurved. Capsules subglobose, usually rudimentary 1-loculed, loculicidal into 3 schizocarps; pericarp leathery or fibrous-woody, tuberculous or woody-spiny. Seeds compressed-globose or transversely ellipsoid; testa leathery; hilum transversely elliptic, large; embryo arched.

About eight species: tropical Asia; two species (one endemic) in China.