ABSTRACT
Trees, shrubs or herbs, dioecious or monoecious; sap milky, sometimes watery (but not turning black). Leaves in spirals or distichous, sometimes subopposite or subverticillate, entire or sometimes pinnately or palmately incised, stipulate. Inflorescences bisexual or unisexual, spicate, globose-, clavate- or discoid-capitate, urceolate or uniflorous. Staminate flowers with 2–6 tepals or perianth lacking; stamens 1–4. Pistillate flowers with 2–6 tepals or perianth lacking; pistil 1; ovary free or adnate to the perianth; stigmas 1–2; ovule 1, attached apically. Fruit achene-like, drupaceous (dehiscent or not), or forming a drupaceous whole with the fleshy perianth or with the fleshy receptacle as well. Seed large without endosperm or small with endosperm; embryo various.
