Shrubs (usually sprawling) or woody climbers, dioecious, usually armed. Leaves alternate, digitately 3-foliolate (occasional leaves 1- or 2-foliolate). Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, paniculate, racemose, or umbelliform. Sepals 4 or 5(or 6), connate at base or to ± half their length. Petals 4 or 5(or 6), valvate or narrowly imbricate in bud. Stamens 4 or 5(or 6), distinct, rudimentary in female flowers. Disk pulvinate. Gynoecium 4-7-loculed, syncarpous, rudimentary in male flowers; ovules 2 per locule; stigma sessile or nearly so. Fruit a 4-7-loculed drupaceous berry; exocarp fleshy; mesocarp undifferentiated; endocarp cartilaginous. Seeds brown to black, reniform, dull to lustrous; seed coat with thick inner layer of dense black sclerenchyma surrounded by outer layer of compact parenchymatous tissue; endosperm copious; embryo curved; cotyledons elliptic, flattened; hypocotyl superior.

One species: Africa, E, S, and SE Asia, Madagascar, Mascarene Islands.

(Authors: Zhang Dianxiang (张奠湘); Thomas G. Hartley)